Risk-Taking Found Crucial To Craft Brewery Survival During Pandemic

UK researchers have found that while many businesses in the hospitality sector struggled to stay afloat during the pandemic, many craft breweries weathered the storm by embracing risk and creativity.

The study at the University of York, in collaboration with Northumbria University and Anglia Ruskin University, found that individual resilience and a willingness to think outside the box must come ahead of evolving company strategy in order for small businesses to face the challenges of unexpected events, such as the pandemic, which saw many independent companies fail.

Dr. Nadine Waehning, from the University of York’s School for Business and Society, who helmed the research which was published in the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, found that craft breweries which were nimble and embraced risk had better survival rate than other hospitality businesses…

“The study showed that business opportunity in the face of a major crisis could be identified, but that personal attitudes towards the challenges, such as attitudes toward risk, investment, change, and creativity, played a more significant role as a first response to the pandemic than changing company strategy did.”

“The support by local people and other local businesses were also a significant factor in how craft brewers, in the absence of pubs being open to supply products to, survived the crisis.”

“The pandemic had a big impact on not only breweries, but supply chains both big and small. We are still feeling these impacts today, with one third of the hospitality industry predicted to be under threat of failure at the beginning of this year.”

“We found that it wasn’t changing business strategy that put businesses on the right foot to move forward in the initial stages of the crisis, Professor Gary Bosworth, from Anglia Ruskin University added “but individual attitudes to the pandemic. Those who felt the crisis would pass were less likely to make investments during the period, and slower to innovate.”

As  Phys.Org  reported “Researchers argue that more studies are needed to understand the full extent of how impactful individual resilience is to achieve whole company resilience, but it was a clear factor in how craft brewers progressed through the pandemic.

###