Understanding recovery of small enterprises from natural disaster

This study, carried out among 251 small-scale firm owners by means of a cross-sectional survey, attempted to identify the factors affecting business recovery from disaster in a flood-prone area of Bangladesh. We selected the participants by using a convenience sampling technique, taking into consideration the characteristics of the firms, and the various enabling- and disaster-impact factors needed to identify those factors significant to business recovery from natural disaster. Results demonstrated that more than three-quarters (87.3%) of owners recovered their firms after disaster. Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that a total of six variables had a significant impact on business recovery: two variables pertaining to the firms' characteristics, namely, retail firms (OR=0.147, P<0.05) and the number of employees >4 (OR=0.094, P<0.01); two variables pertaining to enabling factors, namely, receiving loans (OR=0.232, P<0.01) and the perception of recovery (OR=16.178, P<0.01); and two variables pertaining to disaster-impact factors, namely, an income loss amounting to >BDT 2000 (OR=7.395, P<0.05) and permanent or temporary relocation of the market (OR=9.252, P<0.001). Results further demonstrated that almost equally half of the owners recovered their firms immediately or within 7 days after disaster (50.9%); the remaining 49.1% took longer. Multivariate analyses, on the other hand, significantly identified three characteristics, namely, 6-10 years of business operation (OR=0.267, P<0.01), 2-4 employees (OR=0.1.822, P<0.01), and a monthly income of BDT 5001-7500 (OR=4.167, P<0.01); two enabling factors, namely, institutional education (OR=0.400, P<0.05) and awareness of disaster assistance (OR=0.607, P<0.05); and two disaster-impact factors, namely, loss of human resources (OR=6.293, P<0.05) and interrupted supply of raw materials (OR=4.741, P<0.05). We concluded the study with discussions of a few policy implications.