Responsible Leadership by Family Business (M)SMEs; what and why this presents an opportunity post-COVID (Keynote I)

Abstract

This Conference positions at the Centre of its theme that the events of COVID 19 demand a new paradigm shift in a “way that promotes sharing, coordination and cooperation which helps stabilise the global economy and return it to full health” (12th ICME Conference Theme). How business leaders behave lies at the core of this new paradigm shift. In this presentation, I examine the concept of responsible leadership as guiding a path for business leaders towards this new paradigm in their post pandemic considerations when leading their organisations. My focus in this presentation and paper is on micro, and small to medium size businesses (MSME), particularly family business MSME. This is because family firms account for two-thirds of all businesses worldwide (Miroshnychenko et al. 2021) often dominating the MSME sector. This is a similar picture in Sri Lanka. It is estimated that MSMEs account for over 90% of total enterprises, and dominate the non-agricultural sector (Gunawardena, 2020). However, just as COVID 19 caused deep-seated structural and almost permanent disruption to business organizations globally, so too did COVID 19 do the same to business organizations in Sri Lanka with business – importantly - experiencing a 57% revenue decrease during COVID 19 (KPMG-STEP Project 2021). Following a discussion about the concept of responsible leadership, I discuss why this may be a relevant concept for family business MSMEs before discussing the opportunities that responsible leadership presents for firm performance and sustainability of family business MSMEs. This is mostly a conceptual paper, which however, has research underpinning it that I have conducted with others. It thus presents a work-in-progress concept and I look forward to feedback and discussion from the eminent gathering at this Conference about my ideas.