The small company before the crisis: the need for support and commitment

Abstract

This editorial is on the subject of the involvement of small businesses in the present crisis. It takes a microeconomic approach, because we believe it is necessary to know how the current economic situation affects such relatively back-seat participants as small businesses. Small business is certainly one of the sectors hardest hit by the economic crisis and, in this perspective, we intend to focus on the business world and on possible mechanisms for resolving the global crisis of small businesses.
Our reflections fall into three areas. First, we address the universe of the “new” small business in Spain, trying to clarify what we mean by small business in its legal and organizational diversity. In second place, we concentrate on the impact of the crisis on small businesses, through a more general analysis of the specific factors involved in small businesses. Certainly the government can do much about the crisis in companies, although it is not the only one capable of providing such a response. On the other hand small firms also have commitments that they should comply with. Third of all, we conclude with some proposals to address the present scenario, meant to reduce small businesses’ level of vulnerability. Our editorial also takes into account the attitudes necessary to confront these difficult situations, and then enters into further reflections that go beyond the most urgent problems.
The conclusion drawn by the editorial stresses that, at this economic moment, small business is among the most vulnerable of the sectorsaffected and therefore needs to be supported by all social partners in order to be able to continue fulfilling its social and economic function: the generation of wealth and direct support to families of the entrepreneurs and, indirectly, to all of their workers. It is necessary for small businesses, as the weakest economic agents, to find support to promote initiatives and to take investment risks. These supports should be designed and executed from a sense of “commitment” on the part of the small businesses themselves. This will strengthen their role of being “socially responsible” in a particularly difficult economic situation, creating stable jobs, transforming reality at a local level and, ultimately, creating wealth and thus consolidating the degree of confidence that society places in them .
The crisis poses a financial problem especially in the short term, but it also raises an important issue in the medium and long term, particularly in Spain: the impending disintegration of a growth model based on intensively manpowered industries and poor in new technology. Every crisis is an opportunity to take a leap forward. We hope that this crisis is also an opportunity for small businesses.