Continuity of small businesses when facing increased flood risk due to global climate change impacts: A systematic literature review

Floods are amongst the costliest disasters resulting from human-induced climate change. Small businesses, as the backbone of many economies, are both most affected by and more vulnerable to floods compared to large businesses. Viable small businesses have the potential to contribute to the recovery of communities affected by floods because of their close links. However, the survival of small businesses and their role in community resilience in times of climate change induced disasters is under‐researched. This study addresses this gap by undertaking a systematic literature review of papers in these literatures from 1982 to 2021. The review finds small businesses policies to deal with floods can be categorized into four research themes as follows: business continuity procedures; adaptation measures; resilience frameworks; and recovery efforts. Reviewing these four research themes, key findings are identified as follows. There is limited research into how small businesses respond to flood risk. The small business literature considers natural disasters overall and does not distinguish between specific kinds of disasters. The impact of flood on a small business varies according to their nature, geographic location and is highly context dependent. The number of studies investigating small businesses’ coping strategies post-flooding has increased since 2019 because of their significant economic role in developed countries. The small business literature has mostly focused on business survival not the role of small business in the community, and hence, this paper has attempted to also contribute to identifying research directions and implications from both practical and theoretical aspects.