Crisis leadership in SMEs and the response to COVID-19. An exploratory case study of South Korean SMEs.

Kim, Bora (2020) Crisis leadership in SMEs and the response to COVID-19. An exploratory case study of South Korean SMEs. [Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)]

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Abstract

The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has been disrupting SMEs (Small-medium sized enterprise) in particular. In a crisis such as COVID-19, leadership has been considered as most important in SMEs, but prior studies showed less emphasis on it. Specifically, there is only a limited amount of research on crisis leadership in SMEs in East Asia. The dissertation explores how South Korean SMEs establish crisis leadership to respond to the impact of the COVID-19. By investigating Korean SMEs, the dissertation attempts to address both leadership in SMEs to respond to COVID-19 and crisis leadership in South Korean SMEs. By interviewing five Korean SMEs owners-senior managers, the dissertation explores the impact of the COVID-19 and their crisis leadership; crisis leadership type and crisis leadership competencies. Our findings reveal that the unique leadership of the Korean SMEs leader-senior managers which is combined with paternalistic leadership and proactive, systematic procedures for crisis management in COVID-19, as well as several factors to explain why this leadership emerged. Therefore, our evidence provides new insight of crisis leadership in SMEs out of the western perspectives and suggests a theoretical proposition of crisis leadership in South Korea SMEs.

Item Type: Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)
Keywords: COVID-19, leadership, Crisis leadership, Crisis leadership type, Crisis leadership competencies, SMEs, Korean SMEs.
Depositing User: Kim, Bora
Date Deposited: 14 Apr 2023 10:44
Last Modified: 14 Apr 2023 10:44
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/62572

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