The Impact of COVID-19 on the Small Businesses Economic Performance: Evidence from Italy

The purpose of this paper is to identify the effects caused by COVID-19 on the economic performance of Italian small businesses in the year 2020, with particular regard to the relationships between the determining variables of the operational management profitability. This survey can be useful in guiding the management of the firm, since it allows to intercept the management areas characterized by greater fragility which, as such, must be subjected to closer monitoring. The research considered a sample of 322 small Italian companies. To identify the impact caused by the pandemic on the performance of the selected sample, the research used a Pearson correlation analysis applied to the main variables of the operating area and observed the five-year period 2016-2020 in order to understand the main variations occurred in 2020 compared to previous years. The research showed that in 2020 the core business suffered a general loss of elasticity demonstrated by the presence of a significant reduction in the correlation between revenues and production costs (raw materials, services, employees and depreciations). The lower reactivity of costs to changes in revenues contributed to the sharp erosion of the net income of the companies in the sample.