Surveying Entrepreneurs’ Perception of Society in Times of Corona: A proposal

In this short paper, we propose a research design for collecting data on entrepreneurs’ perceptions of the existential crisis. In particular, we are interested in a deeper understanding of the societal impact the Corona-Crisis will have on social relations in Germany through the eyes of a key-demographic: entrepreneurs. We outline a possible set up for a probabilistic web-panel of entrepreneurs, focusing on managing directors and company owners in small and medium sized companies. The panel would include questions about how entrepreneurs perceive the support offered by the government and the wider society, how this evaluation will impact their view of the government and their fellow citizens and how entrepreneurs see any chance in this crisis for more sustainability-oriented business practices. Moreover, we outline a sampling strategy and a data collection mode. Such research is of particular relevance in the current situation of high uncertainty to better understand how perceptions and attitudes of entrepreneurs are developing due to the crisis. This will not only have important implications for the social group under study, but for questions about the social cohesion more generally.