Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on enterprise health in Latvia

The COVID-19 global crisis has posed new challenges not only for physicians but also for entrepreneurs. Businessmen in many parts of the world have made and continue to implement far-reaching changes with the main goal of speeding up the adjustment of strategic direction and the use of resources. Such changes result in higher profitability, sustainability, and growth. Our main goal is to analyze how entrepreneurs in Latvia have been affected by the pandemic, and how they responded to it. We used both primary and secondary data in our study. The primary data set consists of Latvian Business Survey conducted in the second half of 2020. The secondary data set includes the most recent research papers on the subject and official statistics. Looking at the financial situation of the surveyed entrepreneurs in 2020, there is a significant correlation between the changes in the financial indicators and the factors influencing them. The worst deterioration was in the services and manufacturing sectors. As a result of our research, we have developed a crisis response coefficient and performed calculations of this indicator for companies of various industries in Latvia. The sectors that have responded most significantly to the economic impact of the imposition of an emergency are: wholesale and retail; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles; electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply; and financial and insurance activities. In response to the crisis, many entrepreneurs optimized the organization of their work, increased the use of their IT and digital solutions in business, and implemented new management approaches.