Marketing

World Wide Web

Service (business)

Computer security

Electronic business

Ambidexterity

Psychiatry

Business continuity

Computer science

Business model

Business

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Thermodynamics

Physics

Process management

Psychology

Small and medium-sized enterprises

Infectious disease (medical specialty)

Coping (psychology)

Industrial organization

Medicine

Business transformation

Resilience (materials science)

Finance

Knowledge management

Pandemic

Digital transformation

Disease

Order (exchange)

Business relationship management

Pathology

Sustainability

Businesses have been exposed to various challenges during the global pandemic, and their response to this disruption has impacted their resilience as well as their chances to overcome this crisis. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are changing their business models in order to adapt to this changing environment. Service-based industries have been hit particularly hard. This research investigates how SMEs operating in service industries have been coping with the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This research aims to gain insights into which transformation drivers they have focused on and which technologies they have selected as a means to respond to the disruption. These insights regarding SMEs are then explored according to their influence on the redefinition of sustainable business models in SMEs. The review data was analyzed via a customized research framework that contains three dimensions and 30 subconcepts. The results show the distribution of drivers and technologies across service sectors. They are organized into a Business Model Canvas and could be considered useful for academia and practitioners. The highly unpredictable environment allows for only a few feasible strategic approaches regarding an SME’s decision on to follow incumbents, to become a challenger, or to reinvent themselves based on their own transformation drivers and readiness to apply digital technologies.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Sustainable Business Models in SMEs