Assessing the impact of small firm dynamics on public mental health amid the pandemic in Latin America.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study is to examine the relationship between the economic activity of small firms and the mental well-being of the population in five Latin American countries in the early stages of the pandemic. METHODS: We utilize the search volume of certain keywords on Google Trends (GT), such as "boredom," "frustration," "loneliness," "sleep", "anxiety", and "depression", as an indicator of the well-being of the population. By examining the data from Facebook Business Activity Trends, we investigate how social attention reacts to the activity levels of different economic sectors. RESULTS: Increased business activity is generally associated with reduced levels of boredom, loneliness, sleep problems and anxiety. The effect on depression varies by sector, with positive associations concentrated in onsite jobs. In addition, we observe that strict Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) tend to exacerbate feelings of boredom and loneliness, sleep issues, and anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest a strong association between different indicators of psychological well-being and the level of activity in different sectors of the economy. Given the essential role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in generating employment, especially during crises like the pandemic, it is imperative that they remain resilient and adaptable to support economic recovery and job preservation. To accomplish this, policymakers need to focus on providing financial stability and support for SMEs, fostering social support networks within companies, and incorporating mental health services into workplace environments. This comprehensive strategy can alleviate mental health challenges and enhance public health resilience.

Effects of occupational health promotion interventions on health-related outcomes among employees of small businesses and self-employed individuals: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Compared to workers of larger companies it is less clear what health promoting interventions might be beneficial for employees of small businesses and self-employed individuals. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to critically appraise trials investigating health promotion programs among small business workers and self-employed individuals, by means of a systematic review. METHODS: We conducted a search of primary studies using MEDLINE, Web of Science, LIVIVO and the Cochrane library. Our assessment followed the recommendations of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions and PRISMA. RESULTS: We identified six trials including 5,854 participants from Asia, North America and Australia. Most were of moderate methodological quality, only one was of low quality. Some of the supervised psycho-educational lifestyle programs focusing on individual behavior changes showed benefits in terms of stress reduction and increased physical activity levels among small enterprise employees. CONCLUSIONS: There is a huge knowledge gap on evidence-based health promotion interventions for self-employed and for small business workers, especially in Europe.

Perceptions and Bias of Small Business Leaders in Employing People with Different Types of Disabilities.

PURPOSE: Despite existing employment-related legislation and governmental programs, people with disabilities continue to face significant barriers to competitive employment. These obstacles are partially due to biases among employers regarding the contributions of people with disabilities and perceptions about accommodation costs, which can affect their hiring decisions. Existing research on employment barriers and facilitators often treats people with disabilities homogenously and focuses mainly on large companies. This study helps to fill these gaps by exploring the motivations and challenges small employers face when hiring people with disabilities and how their attitudes and willingness to hire vary based on disability type. METHODS: We surveyed business owners and decision-makers at companies with fewer than 100 employees resulting in a sample of 393 company respondents. Through descriptive analyses, we examined variations in respondents' willingness to hire and the prevailing attitudes among the company leaders sampled. We explored how employer attitudes can either hinder or support the hiring of people with disabilities. We conducted multivariate analysis to explore the connections among attitudinal barriers, facilitators, and willingness to hire individuals with various disabilities, reflecting disability's heterogeneous nature. RESULTS: Our findings reveal that, in terms of hiring people with disabilities, the most important concerns among employers are: inability to discipline, being unfamiliar with how to hire and accommodate, and uncertainty over accommodation costs. These concerns do not differ between employers covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and non-covered employers. However, ADA-coverage may make a difference as ADA-covered employers are more likely to say they would hire an applicant with a disability. We find that for small companies (less than 15 employees), the positive effect of the facilitators (positive perceptions about workers with disabilities) almost completely offsets the negative effect of the barriers. However, for the larger companies, the marginal effect for an additional barrier is significantly more predictive than for an additional facilitator. Among the disabilities we examined, employers are least likely to hire someone with blindness, followed by mental health disabilities, intellectual disabilities, deafness, and physical disabilities, underscoring that employers do not view all types of disabilities as equally desirable at work. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding small employers' underlying concerns and effectively addressing those factors is crucial for developing effective intervention strategies to encourage small employers to hire and retain people with different disabilities. Our results suggest greater openness among ADA-covered employers to hiring people with disabilities, but the perceived barriers indicate a need for ongoing information on effective intervention strategies to increase disability hiring among all small employers.

Dataset on direct and indirect effects of MSME loan securitization issuances on stability of banks.

Given the importance of securitization markets as an alternative access to finance MSMEs, understanding bank-level MSME loan securitization issuance is essential to help shed light on the situation. This paper describes a novel dataset of 440 securitized MSME loan deals of 48 European originators covering the period between 2004 and 2022. Information regarding the originators are hand-collected by reading the prospectus filed. The ready-to-use dataset comprises four main categories: 1) bank stability measures, 2) mediator variables consisting of funding cost, regulatory capital, risk and liquidity, 3) MSME loan securitization issuances, and 4) control variables at the macro and institutional level. Further, this paper aims at providing the step-by-step technique of how to hand-collect information regarding collateral in place. The final dataset is valuable for economic and finance researchers to explore factors related to MSME loan securitization and bank stability in Europe.

Support factors contributing to successful start-up businesses by young entrepreneurs in South Africa.

BACKGROUND: Unemployment and restricted work opportunities for youth are enduring social challenges that affect health, well-being, and quality of life, especially in low- to middle-income countries. When considering the advantages associated with work as a determinant of health, unemployment is understood to contribute to occupational injustice. However, self-employment, hailed the solution to youth unemployment, is often necessity-driven, precarious in nature and restricted by the low success rate of business start-ups. OBJECTIVE: Research was undertaken to explore factors perceived to contribute to the success of start-up businesses in an informal settlement in the Western Cape of South Africa. The importance of support in the success of business start-ups will be the focus of this article. METHODS: A collective case study, using narrative interviewing and - analysis, was undertaken in South Africa. Two narrative interviews were conducted with each of the five participants who were youth entrepreneurs and founders of start-up businesses. Data analysis comprised the use of narrative analysis and paradigmatic type narrative analysis. RESULTS: Three themes captured factors deemed to have contributed to the success of start-up businesses. The vital role of support systems and networks in business success was demonstrated. CONCLUSIONS: Support systems included family, friends, role models, mentors, team members and business partners. Identification, utilization, and ongoing development of support structures available in the social networks of young entrepreneurs were perceived to have contributed to the success of start-ups.

Does culture empower inclusive finance? Empirical investigation into small business in Cameroon.

The issue of culture is becoming ever more interesting, especially when interconnected with other business factors like finance. Although intriguing, the relationship between culture and finance has long been neglected. Unlike existing research, this article aims at assessing the impact of culture on financial inclusion and financial literacy among Cameroonian small business managers. In this quantitative investigation, the indices are built using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and the estimation is done using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS). The data used is from a research survey on 161 small enterprises in the cities of Douala, Bafoussam, Foumban, Foumbot, and Dschang. The findings demonstrate that organizational culture, in contrast to its social component, is positively and strongly associated with financial literacy and financial inclusion. Additionally, firm and manager variables like age, turnover variation, and education level significantly explain these financial variables. Thus, it is essential to promote organizational culture in Cameroonian businesses.

Exploring a targeted approach for public health capacity restrictions during COVID-19 using a new computational model.

This work introduces the Queen's University Agent-Based Outbreak Outcome Model (QUABOOM). This tool is an agent-based Monte Carlo simulation for modelling epidemics and informing public health policy. We illustrate the use of the model by examining capacity restrictions during a lockdown. We find that public health measures should focus on the few locations where many people interact, such as grocery stores, rather than the many locations where few people interact, such as small businesses. We also discuss a case where the results of the simulation can be scaled to larger population sizes, thereby improving computational efficiency.

An Exploratory Study of the Perceived Need for and Acceptability of a Healthy Frozen Meal Product Among Rural Corner Store Customers in North Carolina.

This pilot study assesses barriers to obtaining healthy affordable food and the early-stage acceptability of a novel subsidized healthy frozen meal product designed to address food insecurity and nutritional status among corner store customers in rural North Carolina. A convenience sample of 50 customers were surveyed to examine the perceived availability of healthy food options, barriers to maintaining healthy diets, food shopping and consumption habits, and reception of the product. Findings confirmed barriers to obtaining healthy foods that the product seeks to address, the validity of corner stores as the intervention site, and approval of the product's taste and concept.

Unravelling trends, patterns and intellectual structure of research on bankruptcy in SMEs: A bibliometric assessment and visualisation.

Despite the burgeoning interest among academics in investigating the factors contributing to the high business failure rate among SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises), the systematic synthesis of the literature on bankruptcy in SMEs is restricted. This article aims to significantly advance the understanding of the causes and repercussions of bankruptcy in SMEs and the preventative actions that may be taken to avoid it. This review assesses 282 articles from 175 outlets employing quantitative and statistics-based bibliometric tools. This bibliometric assessment helped delineate the citation and publication trends and the top contributors to the domain. The underlying thematic clusters of research on bankruptcy in SMEs were also identified, deciphered and elaborated, along with charting the future research vistas through the lens of theory, context, and methods framework. The authors believe this bibliometric variant of systematic literature review makes a significant contribution to bankruptcy and SME research by highlighting the development of the literature and some of the most active research fronts in the domain by offering insights that were not clasped thoroughly or assessed by prior literature assessments.

Managers' leadership competencies and sustainable development goals in turbulent markets: the enabling role of resource commitment.

Research on the sustainable development goals (SDGs) has brought attention to the significance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) due to their substantial contributions to economic growth. However, SMEs still need to develop integrated frameworks to assess the implications of sustainable operations while managing scarce resources. In this study, we investigate how top managers of SMEs utilize leadership competencies to balance and allocate resources for SDGs in a turbulent environment. To test the model, the analysis was conducted on 254 SMEs operating in an emerging market. The findings indicate that resource commitment plays a partially mediating role between leadership competencies and SDGs, while environmental uncertainty does not moderate the relationship between leadership competencies and resource commitment. These insights suggest that SMEs with competent leaders commit resources to SDGs regardless of environmental conditions. This research recommends that SMEs focus on cultivating competent leaders to navigate resource constraints and contribute to the SDGs in a turbulent environment. Further implications are discussed.

The role of implementation organizations in scaling evidence-based psychosocial interventions.

BACKGROUND: To bring evidence-based interventions (EBIs) to individuals with behavioral health needs, psychosocial interventions must be delivered at scale. Despite an increasing effort to implement effective treatments in communities, most individuals with mental health and behavioral problems do not receive EBIs. We posit that organizations that commercialize EBIs play an important role in disseminating EBIs, particularly in the USA. The behavioral health and implementation industry is growing, bringing the implementation field to an important inflection point: how to scale interventions to improve access while maintaining EBI effectiveness and minimizing inequities in access to psychosocial intervention. MAIN BODY: We offer a first-hand examination of five illustrative organizations specializing in EBI implementation: Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Incredible Years, Inc.; the PAXIS Institute; PracticeWise, LLC; and Triple P International. We use the Five Stages of Small Business Growth framework to organize themes. We discuss practical structures (e.g., corporate structures, intellectual property agreements, and business models) and considerations that arise when trying to scale EBIs including balancing fidelity and reach of the intervention. Business models consider who will pay for EBI implementation and allow organizations to scale EBIs. CONCLUSION: We propose research questions to guide scaling: understanding the level of fidelity needed to maintain efficacy, optimizing training outcomes, and researching business models to enable organizations to scale EBIs.

Factors Influencing Parents' Decisions to Create a Business for Their Adult Child With Intellectual Disability.

Obtaining and maintaining work can be a challenge for many people with intellectual disability (ID) and parents can play an integral role in supporting their child to secure employment. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to understand factors that influence parents' decisions to create a business for their adult child with ID. Nine parents were identified through purposeful and snowball sampling. Parents participated in individual interviews and data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Our findings suggest that school experiences, expectations for work, presence of specialized support, and encouragement and suggestions from others influenced parents' decisions to create a business. In light of the findings, we discuss how parents' previous experiences and responsiveness influenced the creation of the business.

The Bite of HOPE Small Food Business Development Program: a clinic-based culinary medicine program targeting local business owners.

Culinary medicine is a popular approach to health promotion, but most programs focus on patient or provider-facing education. While laudable, these efforts do not represent the full potential for culinary medicine to impact community health. We describe a novel approach to culinary medicine at a federally qualified health center (FQHC), the HOPE Clinic: Bite of HOPE Small Food Business Development (SFBD) program. Describe the design and implementation of the Bite of HOPE SFBD program and examine initial response to the program through interviews and focus groups with past participants. The SFBD program aims to create healthy food outlets by supporting local small businesses with education, resources, and mentorship support. Former participants in the SFBD program were invited to participate in focus groups and interviews exploring their experience and perceived program impact. Three focus groups (n = 10) and nine in-depth interviews were conducted. Most participants were Black or Hispanic and all operated their businesses in the community surrounding HOPE Clinic. Five themes emerged from the data including perceived program purpose, program discovery, motivating factors to participation, perceived program impact, and suggestions for improvement. Participants expressed high satisfaction with the program and positive changes in both business development and personal eating habits. There is an opportunity to leverage the culinary medicine model to support local small food business and improve community health. The Bite of HOPE SFBD program offers an example of how clinic-based resources can expand into the surrounding environment.

Culinary medicine is an increasingly popular way to teach individuals about healthy eating, but most programs offer classes only to patients or healthcare providers. This study explores a new type of culinary medicine program that focuses on improving community health by teaching small food business owners about healthy eating and sustainability. In this paper, we describe the small food business program and explore how business owners reacted to participating in the program. We discussed the small food business development (SFBD) program with 19 former participants through focus groups and interviews. Former participants expressed high satisfaction with the program and positive changes in both business development and personal eating habits. Program suggestions were focused on ways to increase access to the program information. The SFBD program described here offers an example of how culinary medicine can be used to enhance community nutrition and economic health by offering education and support to local food purveyors and professionals.

Barriers and Challenges to Human Factors/Ergonomics Knowledge Transfer to Small Business Enterprises in an Industrially Developing Country.

OCCUPATIONAL APPLICATIONWe found that small business enterprises (SBEs) face intra- and extra-organizational barriers in different dimensions related to their work system to practically implement human factors/ergonomics (HFE) knowledge transfer and to achieve its benefits in an industrially developing country. Utilizing a three-zone lens, we evaluated the feasibility of overcoming the barriers identified by stakeholders, especially ergonomists. To overcome the identified barriers in practice, three types of macroergonomics interventions (top-down, middle-out, and bottom-up) were distinguished through macroergonomics theory. The bottom-up approach of macroergonomics, as a participatory HFE intervention, was considered as the entry point to overcome the perceived barriers in the first zone of the lens, which included such themes as lack of competence, lack of involvement and interaction, and inefficient training and learning approaches. This approach focused on improving emotional literacy as a care zone among the small business enterprise personnel.

Background: The human factors/ergonomics (HFE) knowledge transfer process is one of the potential challenges for organizations in industrially developing countries (IDCs), especially in small business enterprises (SBEs).Purpose: We explored perceived barriers and challenges to the practical implementation of HFE knowledge transfer to SBEs in Iran, as an IDC, to improve their work systems.Methods: An exploratory qualitative study was conducted using a conventional content analysis. To identify perceived barriers, we conducted individual interviews (n = 38) and a focus-group discussion (n = 17) with the participation of the SBEs personnel and the officials of related organizations. Inductive content analysis was used for data analysis. We then categorized the identified perceived barriers (themes) to determine the feasibility of overcoming them.Results: Regarding perceived barriers, the following nine themes were extracted: lack of competence, resistance to change, technological infrastructure problems, lack of involvement and interaction, using an inappropriate mode of knowledge, lack of culture-building about HFE, inefficient training and learning approaches, lack of scientific management, and extra-organizational problems. Further, a three-zone lens was identified for the extracted themes to check the feasibility of overcoming them.Conclusions: We identified nine intra- and extra-organizational barriers in the HFE knowledge transfer process to SBEs. We further evaluated the ways of overcoming perceived barriers defined in the three-zone lens to adapt them for building creative workplace culture zones (care, creative, and improvement). We distinguished three types of macroergonomics interventions (top-down, middle-out, and bottom-up) and three supporting strategies, including, knowledge, management and employees, and participatory HFE.

COVID-19 Workplace Mitigation Strategies and Employee Leave Policies Implemented during the Height of the Pandemic, United States, Fall 2020 and 2021.

COVID-19 workplace mitigation strategies implemented within US businesses have been effective at preventing disease and protecting workers, but the extent of their use is not well understood. We examined reported COVID-19 workplace mitigation strategies by business size, geographic region, and industry using internet panel survey data from US adult respondents working full- or part-time outside the home (fall 2020, N = 1168) andfull- or part-time, inside or outside the home (fall 2021, N = 1778). We used chi-square tests to assess the differences in the strategies used (e.g., masking and COVID-19 screening) and ANOVA tests to examine the group differences on a mitigation strategies summative score. Fewer COVID-19 mitigation strategies were reported by respondents in fall 2021 (compared to fall 2020) across businesses of different sizes and regions. The participants in microbusinesses (1-10 employees) reported significantly (p < 0.05) lower mitigation scores than all other business sizes, and the respondents in these businesses were significantly less likely (p < 0.05) to have paid leave than those in enterprises with >10 employees. The healthcare and education sectors had the highest reported mean score of COVID-19 workplace mitigation strategies. Small and essential businesses are critical to the US economy. Insight is needed on their use of mitigation strategies to protect workers during the current and future pandemics.

Understanding the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Small Businesses and Workers Using Quantitative and Qualitative Methods.

The COVID-19 pandemic has simultaneously exacerbated and elucidated inequities in resource distribution for small businesses across the United States in terms of worker health and the financial stability of both owners and employees. This disparity was further intensified by the constantly changing and sometimes opposing health and safety guidelines and recommendations to businesses from the local, state, and federal government agencies. To better understand how the pandemic has impacted small businesses, a cross-sectional survey was administered to owners, managers, and workers (n = 45) in the beauty and auto shop sectors from Southern Arizona. The survey identified barriers to safe operation that these businesses faced during the pandemic, illuminated worker concerns about COVID-19, and elicited perceptions of how workplaces have changed since the novel coronavirus outbreak of 2019. A combination of open-ended and close-ended questions explored how businesses adapted to the moving target of pandemic safety recommendations, as well as how the pandemic affected businesses and workers more generally. Almost all the beauty salons surveyed had to close their doors (22/25), either temporarily or permanently, due to COVID-19, while most of the auto repair shops were able to stay open (13/20). Beauty salons were more likely to implement exposure controls meant to limit transmission with customers and coworkers, such as wearing face masks and disallowing walk-ins, and were also more likely to be affected by pandemic-related issues, such as reduced client load and sourcing difficulties. Auto shops, designated by the state of Arizona to be 'essential' businesses, were less likely to have experienced financial precarity due to the pandemic. Content analysis of open-ended questions using the social-ecological model documented current and future worker concerns, namely financial hardships from lockdowns and the long-term viability of their business, unwillingness of employees to return to work, uncertainty regarding the progression of the pandemic, conflict over suitable health and safety protocols, and personal or family health and well-being (including anxiety and/or stress). Findings from the survey indicate that small businesses did not have clear guidance from policymakers during the pandemic and that the enacted regulations and guidelines focused on either health and safety or finances, but rarely both. Businesses often improvised and made potentially life-changing decisions with little to no support. This analysis can be used to inform future pandemic preparedness plans for small businesses that are cost-efficient, effective at reducing environmental exposures, and ultimately more likely to be implemented by the workers.

Influences of rurality on small business owner mental well-being in regional NSW.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the influences of rurality on small business owner mental well-being and approaches to managing stress and mental well-being. DESIGN: Semistructured interviews with small businesspeople. Concepts of salutogenesis and pathogenesis were used to interpret rurality influences on business and mental well-being. A stress-coping framework was used to categorise approaches to managing mental well-being. SETTING: Central Western New South Wales. PARTICIPANTS: Eleven female and male rural small businesspeople across sectors, including farming, allied health, beauty care and retail businesses. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Interviewee descriptions of experiences of small business and rurality and approaches to managing mental well-being. FINDINGS: Rurality influenced mental well-being in four main ways: Business integration with community and owner identity; Visibility and being known; Different financial pressures; and Options for specialised support and casual relief. Rurality can be salutogenic and pathogenic, depending on circumstances, and pressures arising from rurality may differ for 'locals' and recent arrivals. High visibility in a small community can lead to a satisfying sense of belonging and connection. It can also create unwanted feelings of obligation and being watched. Most commonly the interviewees used emotional supports or distraction to adapt to stressors. This may be due to limited options to change or disengage from stressors in rural contexts. CONCLUSION: Rurality brings its own benefits and challenges to small businesspeople's mental well-being. Given the immense contributions of small business to rural society and economies, investments in understanding and supporting the mental well-being of rural small businesspeople should be a high priority for communities and all levels of government.

The waste ban in China: what happened next? Assessing the impact of new policies on the waste management sector in China.

The 2017 ban on the waste import and new policies for the waste management sector in mainland China had wide-spread impact. After decades of poor environmental and public health impacts from the sector, a study is needed which focuses on policies updates and waste management. This provides a direction for the survival of local waste management industries and consider similarities with the ban promulgated in China on the restriction of waste import from other countries. We review the waste management situation in China before national legislation prevented the import of waste, highlight the status of landfill mining in China, and review the dynamics of domestic policies before and after the promulgation of the ban in China. The impact of the COVID19 pandemic on the waste management system is starting to emerge, providing both challenges and opportunities for the sector in China. We see the impact of the ban on the range of imported waste and domestically generated materials. The ban results in price increases for domestic recycling that forces companies to introduce more formal recycling processes and to drive the consumption behaviours to more reasonable and environmentally friendly options. The driver in China is to reduce pollution in the environment and improve health, but a negative impact has been from increased landfill mining which has impeded the original aim of the waste ban and requires further technological development. The dynamic of domestic policies in China shows higher level of activity of updates and revisions or introduction of new policies from 2015 onwards and the concept of 'zero waste cities' brings new hope for improvement of the Chinese waste management system. The pandemic also suggests an important step to establish sustainable management systems despite evidence of increased "fly-tipping". The rebound of the waste ban may have stimulated in the short term negative impacts on local environments both in China and internationally.

Small Business Property Tax Reductions and Firm Productivity.

We investigate the productivity spillovers from the UK government's decision to use extensive property tax reductions as a key instrument to stimulate innovation in smaller businesses and drive local growth. To capture the complex interaction and clustering of hierarchical effects, we apply non-parametric Random Effects Expectation Maximisation algorithm that complements more standard econometric estimators, namely matching to control for endogeneity and control functions to estimate total factor productivity. These approaches enabled us to incorporate various contextual configurations in comparing the recipients of these reductions to non-recipients with regard to productivity, in which the UK has experienced a considerably worse performance than its peers since the great recession. Contrary to policy assumptions and business community expectations, we show that generic tax reductions, when significant, are mostly associated with lower productivity and thus have been unsuitably chosen as a policy mechanism to stimulate productivity growth. We further show how instruments that are not built for causality could be beneficial for policy evaluation. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11187-023-00768-0.

Were small businesses more likely to permanently close in the pandemic?

Previous estimates indicate that COVID-19 led to a large drop in the number of operating businesses operating early in the pandemic, but surprisingly little is known on whether these shutdowns turned into permanent closures and whether small businesses were disproportionately hit. This paper provides the first analysis of permanent business closures using confidential administrative firm-level panel data covering the universe of businesses filing sales taxes from the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. We find large increases in closure rates in the first two quarters of 2020, but a strong reversal of this trend in the third quarter of 2020. The increase in closures rates in the first two quarters of the pandemic was substantially larger for small businesses than large businesses, but the rebound in the third quarter was also larger. The disproportionate closing of small businesses led to a sharp concentration of market share among larger businesses as indicated by the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index with only a partial reversal after the initial increase. The findings highlight the fragility of small businesses during a large adverse shock and the consequences for the competitiveness of markets.