Gender, entrepreneurship, and coping with the COVID-19 pandemic: The case of GoFood merchants in Indonesia.

ABSTRACT: This paper examines business performance and crisis-mitigation strategies among micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia during the COVID-19 pandemic. We utilise a new primary dataset based on administrative records, survey data, and follow-up interviews with merchants using the digital application GoFood, an on-demand cooked food delivery service. Three empirical findings emerge: first, the overall employment size of women-owned businesses shrank more than men-owned businesses after the onset of the pandemic; second, women were more likely than men to cut personal expenditures and use government assistance as crisis-mitigation strategies; and third, competition increased sharply as new merchants entered the platform, with the service areas of both incumbents and ent

SUBMITTER: Elhan-Kayalar Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9877894 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature