Role of Family and Survival Strategies of Micro-Family Food Business during COVID-19 Pandemic

This study aimed to investigate the challenges faced, and strategies adopted by micro-family food businesses (MFFB) in Malaysia and examine the family's role in managing such businesses during the COVID-19 crisis. A qualitative research approach was employed, using semi-structured interviews wi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Tourism and Services
Main Author: Azman A.B.; Majid M.A.A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Center for International Scientific Research of VSO and VSPP 2023
Online Access:https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85164349938&doi=10.29036%2fjots.v14i26.489&partnerID=40&md5=b666f6b2f89d2fa33b58f7049d798f52
id 2-s2.0-85164349938
spelling 2-s2.0-85164349938
Azman A.B.; Majid M.A.A.
Role of Family and Survival Strategies of Micro-Family Food Business during COVID-19 Pandemic
2023
Journal of Tourism and Services
14
26
10.29036/jots.v14i26.489
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85164349938&doi=10.29036%2fjots.v14i26.489&partnerID=40&md5=b666f6b2f89d2fa33b58f7049d798f52
This study aimed to investigate the challenges faced, and strategies adopted by micro-family food businesses (MFFB) in Malaysia and examine the family's role in managing such businesses during the COVID-19 crisis. A qualitative research approach was employed, using semi-structured interviews with MFFB owners. The interviews ceased after six participants, ensuring data saturation and the interpreted data's trustworthiness is explained. The findings revealed that MFFB faced multiple challenges, including a drop in sales, business closure, financial instability, and pressure on fixed costs. Besides, this research captured several unique survival strategies adopted by the MFFB owners, such as generosity towards customers, changes in operation, online advertisements, customer satisfaction surveys, maintaining food quality and prices, initiating takeaway orders, and collaboration with food aggregators. The results indicate that task management, responsibility, and reliance are essential to family-owned businesses as significant business strategies. It implies that family relationships play a significant role in the business's direction and business survival; future directions might compare the results to a larger business capacity. This study sheds light on the role of families in managing MFFB during the COVID-19 pandemic and provides practical implications for policymakers, business owners, and practitioners to support MFFB in overcoming challenges during unexpected adversity. By better understanding the challenges faced and strategies adopted by MFFB, it is anticipated to gain greater insight into how the Malaysian food business can become more resilient in the future. © 2023 Authors. All rights reserved.
Center for International Scientific Research of VSO and VSPP
18045650
English
Article
All Open Access; Hybrid Gold Open Access
author Azman A.B.; Majid M.A.A.
spellingShingle Azman A.B.; Majid M.A.A.
Role of Family and Survival Strategies of Micro-Family Food Business during COVID-19 Pandemic
author_facet Azman A.B.; Majid M.A.A.
author_sort Azman A.B.; Majid M.A.A.
title Role of Family and Survival Strategies of Micro-Family Food Business during COVID-19 Pandemic
title_short Role of Family and Survival Strategies of Micro-Family Food Business during COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full Role of Family and Survival Strategies of Micro-Family Food Business during COVID-19 Pandemic
title_fullStr Role of Family and Survival Strategies of Micro-Family Food Business during COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Role of Family and Survival Strategies of Micro-Family Food Business during COVID-19 Pandemic
title_sort Role of Family and Survival Strategies of Micro-Family Food Business during COVID-19 Pandemic
publishDate 2023
container_title Journal of Tourism and Services
container_volume 14
container_issue 26
doi_str_mv 10.29036/jots.v14i26.489
url https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85164349938&doi=10.29036%2fjots.v14i26.489&partnerID=40&md5=b666f6b2f89d2fa33b58f7049d798f52
description This study aimed to investigate the challenges faced, and strategies adopted by micro-family food businesses (MFFB) in Malaysia and examine the family's role in managing such businesses during the COVID-19 crisis. A qualitative research approach was employed, using semi-structured interviews with MFFB owners. The interviews ceased after six participants, ensuring data saturation and the interpreted data's trustworthiness is explained. The findings revealed that MFFB faced multiple challenges, including a drop in sales, business closure, financial instability, and pressure on fixed costs. Besides, this research captured several unique survival strategies adopted by the MFFB owners, such as generosity towards customers, changes in operation, online advertisements, customer satisfaction surveys, maintaining food quality and prices, initiating takeaway orders, and collaboration with food aggregators. The results indicate that task management, responsibility, and reliance are essential to family-owned businesses as significant business strategies. It implies that family relationships play a significant role in the business's direction and business survival; future directions might compare the results to a larger business capacity. This study sheds light on the role of families in managing MFFB during the COVID-19 pandemic and provides practical implications for policymakers, business owners, and practitioners to support MFFB in overcoming challenges during unexpected adversity. By better understanding the challenges faced and strategies adopted by MFFB, it is anticipated to gain greater insight into how the Malaysian food business can become more resilient in the future. © 2023 Authors. All rights reserved.
publisher Center for International Scientific Research of VSO and VSPP
issn 18045650
language English
format Article
accesstype All Open Access; Hybrid Gold Open Access
record_format scopus
collection Scopus
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