Adaptations, Female Labour Participation, and Innovation among SMEs in Zambia during Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the operations of all enterprises but particularly on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). In the case of Zambia, SMEs experienced a significant decrease in revenue, while confronting a dramatic increase in the costs of inputs. Furthermore, few SMEs had access to financial support from the government.  This paper implements a binary Probit regression model to analyse the impact of the level of fulltime female workers, the business environment, and adaptations on innovation among SMEs in Zambia. Our results show that those SMEs that are willing to adapt are also more likely to innovate. Our results also show that an increasing presence of women as full-time workers is a conduit for innovation.  Among other things, we conclude that Zambia must focus on the development and promotion of domestic markets and SMEs resilience, as well as strategies that support female labour participation, female entrepreneurs, and job creation.