Abstract
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) play a vital role in economic development in terms of generating employment and turnover among a whole range of economic contributions. They also contribute to social cohesiveness and vibrancy of local communities; thus making vital socioeconomic contributions. Although SMEs are widespread in many industry sectors, their vulnerability to many challenges remains high. For instance, research has found that SMEs suffer the most in times of crisis and are the least prepared of all organisations. Given the significant impacts suffered by flood-affected small businesses during the recent years, the necessity for increasing their resilience by implementing both structural and non-structural measures is being increasingly highlighted. Whilst structural property-level measures provide a basis to improve the capacities for both resistance and resilience of the SME properties against flooding, the soft non-structural measures, which are often undervalued, provide the basis to improve the capacity of resilience of their business operations against any flood events. Although various soft measures of improving resilience are available and have been utilised in many instances by SMEs, what is appropriate for individual small businesses depend on a range of factors. This is especially the case because of the highly heterogeneous nature of the small business sector. This chapter argues that on the whole softer measures of resilience have the potential to be more strategically driven in line with business operations. Further, small businesses could add value to their entity in terms of long-term sustainability and growth if such a strategy is pursued when implementing a flood resilience scheme to reduce vulnerability to flooding.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Amir, S. & Kant, V. (2018). Sociotechnical Resilience: A Preliminary Concept. Risk Analysis, 38: 8–16. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.12816.
Ayyagari, M., Beck, T. & Demirgüç-Kunt, A. (2003). Small and Medium Enterprises across the Globe: A New Database. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3127, 1–34.
Bannock, G. (2005). The Economics and Management of Small Business: An International Perspective. London. Taylor & Francis Routledge.
Berkhout, F., Hertin, J. & Arnell, N. (2004). Business and Climate Change: Measuring and Enhancing Adaptive Capacity. Tyndall Centre Technical Report 11. Oxford: Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.
BERR. (2007). SME statistics for the UK, 2006 – Methodology and accuracy: Technical note. Enterprise Directorate Analytical Unit, Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR).
Bhattacharya-Mis, N. & Lamond, J. (2014). An Investigation Of Patterns Of Response And Recovery Among Flood-affected Businesses In The UK: A Case Study In Sheffield And Wakefield. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, 184, 163–173.
BIS. (2010). SME Statistics for the UK and Regions 2009. Enterprise Directorate Analytical Unit, Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS).
BIS. (2015). Business population estimates for the UK and regions 2015. Sheffield: Enterprise Directorate Analytical Unit, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).
Blackburn, R. A. & Smallbone, D. (2008). Researching Small Firms and Entrepreneurship in the U.K.: Developments and Distinctiveness. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 32(2), 267–288.
BMG Research. (2011). Cumbria Business Survey 2010 – Research report. Cumbria: Cumbria Intelligence Observatory.
Bowker, P., Escarameia, M. & Tagg, A. (2007). Improving the flood performance of new buildings: Flood resilient construction. London: Department for Communities and Local Government.
Climate Ready. (2014). Business and Service theme [Online]. Climate Ready, Environment Agency. Available: http://thecccw.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Climate-Ready-businesses-brief-present-and-future-work-areas-Apr-15.pdf [Accessed 10/09/2017]
Companies Act. (2006). (c.46), London, HMSO.
Crichton, D. (2006). Climate Change and its effects on Small Businesses in the UK, London, AXA Insurance UK.
Cumbria County Council. (2010). Business and economy [Online]. Cumbria: Cumbria County Council,. Available: http://www.cumbria.gov.uk/floods/oneyearon/businessandeconomy.asp [Accessed 15/10/2011].
Cumbria Intelligence Observatory. (2010). Cumbria Floods November 2009: An Impact Assessment Cumbria: Cumbria Intelligence Observatory.
Defra. (2008). Consultation on policy options for promoting property-level flood protection and resilience. London: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Defra. (2011). Understanding the risks, empowering communities, building resilience: The national flood and coastal erosion risk management strategy for England. London: The Stationery Office.
Douglas, I., Garvin, S., Lawson, N., Richards, J., Tippett, J. & White, I. (2010). Urban pluvial flooding: a qualitative case study of cause, effect and nonstructural mitigation. Journal of Flood Risk Management, 3(2), 112–125.
Environment Agency. (2009a). Cumbria 2009 Floods: Lessons Identified Report. London: Environment Agency.
Environment Agency. (2009b). Flooding in England: A national assessment of flood risk. Bristol: Environment Agency.
European Commission. (2006). The New SME Definition: User guide and model declaration. European Commission.
Evans, E., Ashley, R., Hall, J., Penning-Rowsell, E., Saul, A., Sayers, P., Thorne, C. & Watkinson, A. (2004). Foresight. Future flooding. Scientific summary: Volume I – Future risks and their drivers. London: Office of Science and Technology.
Federation Of Small Businesses. (2015). Severe weather: A more resilient small business community. London: Federation of Small Businesses.
Gissing, A., Molino, S. & Edwards, G. (2005). Business floodsafe – A toolkit for flood preparedness, response and recovery. Fourth Victorian Flood Management Conference, October 11–14, 2005 2005 Shepparton, Victoria. 1–9.
Gunningham, N. (2002). Regulating Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. J Environmental Law, 14(1), 3–32.
Hallberg, K. (2000). A Market-oriented Strategy for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, Washington, World Bank.
HM Government. (2010). Securing Britain in an age of uncertainty: The strategic defence and security review. Norwich: The Stationery Office.
ICE. (2001). Learning to live with rivers – Final report of the ICE’s presidential commission to review the technical aspects of flood risk management in England and Wales. London: Institution of Civil Engineers.
Ingirige, B., Jones, K. & Proverbs, D. (2008). Investigating SME resilience and their adaptive capacities to extreme weather events: A literature review and synthesis Proceedings of the Conference on Building Education and Research (BEAR 2008). Kandalama, Sri Lanka.
Ingirige, B. & Russell, R. (2015). Investigating SME resilience to flooding – the Braunton report. Salford: University of Salford.
Ingirige, B. & Wedawatta, G. (2014). Putting policy initiatives into practice: Adopting an “honest broker” approach to adapting small businesses against flooding Structural Survey, 32(2), 123–139.
International Institute For Sustainable Development. (2004). Issue Briefing Note: Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. The ISO and Corporate Social Responsibility [Online]. Available: http://inni.pacinst.org/inni/corporate_social_responsibility/standards_sme.pdf [Accessed 18/07/08].
IPCC. (2007). Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In: Solomon, S., D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, Tignor, M. & Miller, H. L. (eds.). Cambridge and New York Cambridge University Press.
Jha, A. K., Bloch, R. & Lamond, J. (2012). Cities and Flooding: A Guide to Integrated Urban Flood Risk Management for the 21st Century, Washington, The World Bank.
Kirchhoff, B. A. (1994). Entrepreneurship and dynamic capitalism: The economics of business firm formation and growth. Westport: Praeger Press.
Kreibich, H., Muller, M., Thieken, A. H. & Merz, B. (2007). Flood precaution of companies and their ability to cope with the flood in August 2002 in Saxony, Germany. Water Resource Research. 43(3), 1–15.
Kreibich, H., Seifert, I., Thieken, A. H. & Merz, B. (2008). Flood precaution and coping with floods of companies in Germany In: Proverbs, D., Brebbia, C. A. & Penning-Rowsell, E. (eds.) Flood recovery, innovation and response. Southampton: WIT Press.
Lamond, J., Bhattacharya-Mis, N., Chan, F., Kreibich, H., Montz, B., Proverbs, D. & Wilkinson, S. J. (2017). Flood risk mitigation and commercial property advice: an international comparison. London: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
Lauder, D., Boocock, G. & Presley, J. (1994). The System of Support for SMEs in the UK and Germany. European Business Review, 94(1), 9–16.
Lukacks, E. (2005). The Economic Role of SMEs in World Economy, Especially In Europe. European Integration Studies, 4(1), 3–12.
Marks, D. & Thomalla, F. (2017). Responses to the 2011 floods in Central Thailand: Perpetuating the vulnerability of small and medium enterprises? Natural Hazards, 87(2), 1147–1165.
McDaniels, T, Chang, S., Cole, D. & Longstaff, H. (2008). Fostering resilience to extreme events within infrastructure systems: Characterizing decision contexts for mitigation and adaptation, Global Environmental change, 18(2), 310–318
MCEER. (2005). White paper on the SDR Grand Challenges for disaster reduction, MCEER, Buffallo.
OECD. (2000). OECD small and medium enterprise outlook: 2000 edition, Paris, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Paton, D. (2007). Measuring and monitoring resilience in Auckland. GNS Science Report 2007/18. Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences Limited.
Petts, J., Herd, A. & O’heocha, M. (1998). Environmental Responsiveness, Individuals and Organizational Learning: SME Experience. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 41(6), 711–730.
Pitt, M. (2008). The Pitt Review – Learning Lessons from the 2007 floods. London: Cabinet Office.
Pivot, J. & Martin, P. (2002). Farms adaptation to changes in flood risk: a management approach. Journal of Hydrology, 267(1–2), 12–25.
Robbins, D. K., Pantuosco, L. J., Parker, D. F., & Fuller, B. K. (2000). An empirical assessment of the contribution of small business employment to US state economic performance. Small Business Economics, 15(4), 293–302.
Runyan, R. C. (2006). Small Business in the Face of Crisis: Identifying Barriers to Recovery from a Natural Disaster. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 14(1), 12–26.
Stern, N. (2007). The economics of climate change: The Stern review. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tickner, L. (2011). Case Study: The Cockermouth flood recovery strategy. Presentation in Civil Contingencies 2011 conference, 18/01/2011 2011 London.
Tierney, K. (1995). Impacts of recent disasters on businesses: The 1993 midwest floods and the 1994 northridge earthquake. Preliminary Paper 230 [Online]. Available: http://www.udel.edu/DRC/preliminary/230.pdf [Accessed 10/08/08].
Tilley, F. & Tonge, J. (2003). Introduction. In: Jones, O. & Tilley, F. (eds.) Competitive Advantage in SMEs : Organising for Innovation and Change UK: Hoboken, NJ John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
UNDP. (2013). Small Businesses: Impact of Disasters and Building Resilience: Analysing the vulnerability of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises to natural hazards and their capacity to act as drivers of community recovery. Background Paper prepared for the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 2013. Geneva: UNISDR.
UNISDR. (2004). Living with risk: A global review of disaster reduction initiatives. New York and Zurich: United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.
UNISDR. (2005). Know risk. Leicester and Geneva: Tudor Rose and United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Wedawatta, G. & Ingirige, B. (2012). Resilience and adaptation of SMEs to flood risk. Disaster Prevention and Management, 21(4), 474–488.
Wedawatta, G., Ingirige, B. & Proverbs, D. (2011). Adaptation to flood risk: the case of businesses in the UK. International Conference on Building Resilience incorporating 7th Annual International Conference of International Institute for Infrastructure, Renewal and Reconstruction (IIIRR). Kandalama, Sri Lanka.
Wedawatta, G., Ingirige, B. & Proverbs, D. (2012). Impacts of flooding on SMEs and their relevance to Chartered Surveyors. London: RICS Education Trust.
Wiseman, J. & Parry, E. (2011). Cumbria Business Survey 2010 – Research report prepared for Cumbria Intelligence Observatory. Birmingham: BMG Research.
Yoshida, K. & Deyle, R. E. (2005). Determinants of Small Business Hazard Mitigation. Natural Hazards Review, 6(1), 1–12.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ingirige, B., Wedawatta, G. (2018). An SME-Driven Approach to Adopting Measures of Flood Resilience: A UK-Based Perspective. In: Amir, S. (eds) The Sociotechnical Constitution of Resilience. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8509-3_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8509-3_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-8508-6
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-8509-3
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)