Egyptian’s Manufacturing Small & Medium Size Enterprises Challenges During Covid-19 “Crisis Times”

Abstract

Purpose: The research is focused on finding out the challenges facing the Egyptian‘s manufacturing small and medium size enterprises during ―Covid-19‖, and the effect of the three main key players ―Enterprise Management, Government and Financial Services providers‖ on supporting the manufacturing SMEs to absorb the stiffness of the crisis challenges. Aim and objectives: the research aims that based on the challenges study, the research will provide enlightenment through proposing solutions, not only to overcome the current crisis ―Covid-19‖, but also to learn how to be prepared in the future for such unpredictable events. Hypotheses: The researcher constructed three basic hypotheses in order to test and measure how far are the relations between the variables, based on, that the challenges are dependent variable and the independent variables (Enterprise Management, Government, FSPs). Design/methodology/approach: The study proposes a research model that was established based on comprehensive research and a fully constructive literature review that simulates the variables and the relationships among all these variables. The target population are mainly the Egyptian Small & Medium Size manufacturing enterprises. Main results: The results of the data analysis revealed that independent predictor variables were found significantly affecting the dependent variable. More over the research proposes solutions that have influence in the role of the key players to support the Egyptian‘s manufacturing small and medium size enterprises to overcome the challenges of the pandemic and any future unprecedented crisis.