Adverse Impact of Lockdown During the COVID-19 Pandemic on MSME (Especially the Indian Handicraft Sector): A Study on Highlighted Exit Strategies and Important Determinants

Abstract

The adverse impact of COVID-19 posed immense challenges for the global economy. For small- and medium-sized businesses, particularly in the handicraft sectors, it was exceptionally difficult to maintain operations during a global crisis. Without crisis management plans in place, business owners run the risk of having their operations abruptly terminated. Therefore, the researchers sought to comprehend and study the factors that led to the shutdown and departure strategies of micro-enterprises (in the handicraft sector) during the pandemic. In order to organize a focused study, an outline for the exploratory study was used, and enrolled micro and businesses in the Eastern region were specifically selected. According to the study’s findings, the majority of micro-enterprises were single-person businesses and had been in working for three and six years. As a result, the respondents’ most typical issues are training and retooling of crisis or pandemic-sensitive handicrafts such as famous business approaches for micro-enterprises owners, particularly in the handmade industry, as well as research into the negative effects of lockdown on the handicraft sector a part of micro small and medium enterprises are all examples of crisis-sensitive strategies for entrepreneurs with small businesses in the crafts sector.