Coping with floods: impacts, preparedness and resilience capacity of Greek micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises in flood-affected areas

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCCSM-09-2022-0122
• Published date: 02 January 2023
• Date: 02 January 2023
• Pages: 81-103
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management,Environmental issues,Climate change
• Author: Antonis Skouloudis,Walter Leal Filho,Georgios Deligiannakis,Panagiotis Vouros,Ioannnis Nikolaou,Konstantinos Evangelinos

Coping with floods: impacts,

preparedness and resilience

capacity of Greek micro-, small-

and medium-sized enterprises in

flood-affected areas

Antonis Skouloudis

Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, Mytilene, Greece

Walter Leal Filho

Research and Transfer Centre “Sustainable Development and Climate Change

Management”(FTZ NK), Hamburg University of Applied Sciences,

Hamburg, Germany and Department of Natural Sciences,

Manchester Metropolitan University,

Manchester, UK

Georgios Deligiannakis

Department of Natural Resources Management and Agricultural Engineering,

Agricultural University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Panagiotis Vouros

Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, Mytilene, Greece and

Department of Accounting and Finance, University of Thessaly, Larissa, Greece

Ioannnis Nikolaou

Department of Environmental Engineering,

Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi, Greece, and

Konstantinos Evangelinos

Department of Environment, University of the Aegean,

Mytilene, Greece

© Antonis Skouloudis, Walter Leal Filho, Georgios Deligiannakis, Panagiotis Vouros, Ioannnis Nikolaou

and Konstantinos Evangelinos. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under

the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and

create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full

attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at

http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

The research work was supported by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI)

under the ‘First Call for H.F.R.I. Research Projects to support Faculty members and Researchers and

the procurement of high-cost research equipment grant’(Project Number: HFRI-FM17-1844).

The paper is part of the non-funded initiative “100 Papers to Accelerate Climate Change Mitigation and

Adaptation”led by Professor Walter Leal Filho, Director of the Research and Transfer Centre “Sustainable

Development and Climate Change Management”(Hamburg University of Applied Sciences).

Coping with

floods

81

Received8 September 2022

Revised31 October 2022

Accepted28 November 2022

InternationalJournal of Climate

ChangeStrategies and

Management

Vol.15 No. 1, 2023

pp. 81-103

EmeraldPublishing Limited

1756-8692

DOI 10.1108/IJCCSM-09-2022-0122

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/1756-8692.htm

Abstract

Purpose –This paper aims to investigate aspects of flood experience, attitudes and responses of micro-,

small- and medium-sized enterprises(MSMEs) in Greece and to indicate a typology of strategies associated

with their relativeeffort to build flood resilience capacity.

Design/methodology/approach –A qualitative study protocol was used,based on pertinent literature

that considershow business entities withstand, adapt and/or recoverfrom non-linear climate change impacts,

natural hazards and extreme weather.Data was obtained by conducting semi-structured interviewswith 82

MSMEs’owners-managerswho had recently experienced flooding.

Findings –The study reports limited activities of MSMEs towards flood resilience capacity despite the

threat of relevant disasters. Findings suggest that most owners-managers of these enterprises are not

adequatelypreparing their businesses for the impacts of flooding.

Research limitations/implications –The findings call for multi-leveland dynamic perspectives to be

examined in assessing MSME resilience capacity to floods. It is attitudinal, managerial, organisational,

behavioural and regulatory (as well as other institutional) factors that merit further investigation. Such an

investigation would allowa better understanding as to whetherthese factors hinder or enable conditions for

microeconomic flood preparedness and resilience as well as how they may interactwith each other or create

feedbackloops.

Practical implications –The study carries managerial implications and policy recommendations in

terms of nurturing opportunitiestowards awareness-raising campaigns for reducing deficits in managerial

knowledge and competencies.It also encapsulates practical implications in terms of emphasisingsupporting

mechanisms from key institutional stakeholders to allow MSMEs scan available options they have in

effectivelyreinforcing the business premises fromthe forces of rising waters.

Originality/value –Most of the related studies have examined floodimpacts, responses and/or resilience

capacity at the household- or community-level. Empirical work that is conducted to ascertainhow MSMEs

cope with flooding remains thin on the ground. In response to this, the current study and the typology of

MSMEs’strategicpostures that are suggested seek to contribute to this under-researchedtopic.

Keywords Flooding, Micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, Resilience, Qualitative study,

Greece

Paper type Research paper

Introduction –background

Flooding is undeniably the most frequently occurring type of natural disaster. Of a total of

10,320 natural disasters that took place globally during the past 30years (1990–2020),

approximately 42% were floods [Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), 2021]. Such

extreme weather events can be recurrent and extremely hazardous, causing substantial

damages and severe socio-economic interruptions, usually aggravated by rapid urban

growth/expansion and aggressive land use change (Duy et al.,2018). Researchers have

examined flood impacts and resilience capacity at individual (i.e. household) and collective

(i.e. community) levels, but empirical work conducted to ascertain how micro-, small- and

medium-sized enterprises(henceforth MSMEs) [1] cope with flooding is burgeoning but still

thin on the ground (Samantha,2018;Miceli et al.,2008;Xiao and van Zandt,2012).

While enterprises can be essential socio-economic units that nurture and promote

adaptation to environmental perturbations (Averchenkova et al., 2016;Crick et al., 2018;

Linnenluecke and Griffiths, 2015;Eleftheriadis and Anagnostopoulou, 2017), it is well

established in the literature that MSMEstend to fall short in terms of resources and skills to

prepare for, withstand and recover from weatherextremes such as floods (Biggs et al.,2012;

Hall, 2006;Reynolds, 2013;Howe, 2011;Chaliha et al.,2012). This is despite the MSMEs’

importance to socio-economicdevelopment at various scales (i.e. local,regional, national and

international) and that, in general terms, they are characterised by increased vulnerability

and exposure to environmentalstressors. Supporting arguments for this claim can be found

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