Tryst with COVID-19 crisis: a content analysis-based perspective on women entrepreneurs

The outbreak of COVID-19 virus exposed the high vulnerability of women entrepreneurs. The impact was multifaceted and included issues like demand drop, business survival struggle, work-life balance, employee well-being, need for business diversification, etc. Given such challenges, our understanding of how women entrepreneurs respond to crises and ensure business sustenance remains limited. This study fills this gap in extant literature. Our study aims to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on women entrepreneurs. It highlights the struggle and resilience shown by women entrepreneurs during the pandemic, and contributes to existing knowledge on crisis management. In addition, policies to deal with future crises have been offered. A sample of women entrepreneurs were interviewed qualitatively. The elicited responses were analysed through content analysis to derive themes based on an inductive approach. The study reveals how women entrepreneurs navigated and manoeuvred through the crisis by adopting new ways of business continuance. Implications offered as part of the study can serve to scholars and policymakers as a roadmap for devising strategic interventions to deal with future crises and black swan events.