Impacto da pandemia COVID-19 na estratégia de negócio e operações das PMEs em Portugal e Brasil

Abstract

This work is a critical study on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the definition of business and operations strategies in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Portugal and Brazil. The main objectives are to understand how activities aimed at defining business strategy and operations strategy are carried out, together with understanding how the pandemic changed these processes and what were the motivations of companies with its changes. The realities of companies in each country will be compared in search of differences and similarities. Still, it will be investigated which changes showed the best impacts for the interviewed companies. The objectives of the study were achieved through research carried out with the qualitative method of investigation. Through a semi-structured interview, it was possible to perform data analysis and discussion of results. With the analysis of the data obtained, the results showed that all the companies interviewed understand that the elaboration of business and operations strategy is essential to reach positive results for their companies. During the pandemic, companies had to somehow change the definitions of their business and operations strategies. It was possible to identify that the COVID-19 pandemic was (and still being) a major challenge for the companies interviewed, which had to develop different strategies to deal with the impact on revenue. As the main point addressed by respondents regarding the strategic changes of their companies, it was possible to identify the search for innovations that help the sales process for their customers.

Date of Award	14 Dec 2021
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Jorge Julião (Supervisor)