The Roles of Entrepreneurial Skills, Financial Literacy, and Digital Literacy in Maintaining MSMEs during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the economic growth of Indonesia. Government regulations to limit large-scale social activities has caused marketing and financial difficulties for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Digital and financial literacy have the potential to overcome the problems. This study attempts to identify the determinants of MSME sustainability during the pandemic. By using a questionnaire, this study collected 204 data from MSMEs for further analyses. MSME sustainability is influenced by the digital and financial literacy of MSME owners and is a cause for concern. The implementation of health and safety measures (HSM) has an insignificant impact on business sustainability, but HSM affects financial and digital literacy. Entrepreneurial skills are important to improve HSM and owners’ digital and financial literacy. The government and other parties need to provide more soft loans and facilitate MSMEs to develop entrepreneurial skills, digital and financial literacy to improve business sustainability during the pandemic.

Keywords: Business sustainability, Digital literacy, Financial literacy, Health and safety, Business during the pandemic, Entrepreneurial skills MSME

JEL Classification: G41, M00, M31, L26