Doing business underwater : flooding, entrepreneurship and resilience
Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) are extremely important to the health of the UK economy. Yet their continued survival is threatened by a plethora of risks on a daily basis. Floods affect more people and cause more economic losses than any other hazard in the UK. Accordingly, the aim of this thesis was to explore flood risk from the SME perspective by looking at case examples of Hull and Sheffield, two cities which were hit extremely hard during the summer 2007 floods. Through the conduction of 38 semi-structured interviews and the distribution of a postal questionnaire with a response rate of 8.7%, it was found that for SME owner/managers flooding is not a significant risk. It is one in a âpackage of disruptionsâ which causes discontinuity to the âorder of businessâ. These perceptions differ to those held by local regulatory bodies. It was revealed that the Environment Agency, Hull City Council and Sheffield City Council are at cross-purposes in regards to the resilience measures implemented to address flooding. This variation leads to the production of a âresponsibility gameâ scenario between SMEs and regulatory bodies, the catalyst for SMEs remaining vulnerable to the risk of flooding.
Messham, Rebecca Louise
History
Doing business underwater : flooding, entrepreneurship and resilience. Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) are extremely important to the health of the UK economy. Yet their continued survival is threatened by a plethora of risks on a daily basis. Floods affect more people and cause more economic losses than any other hazard in the UK. Accordingly, the aim of this thesis was to explore flood risk from the SME perspective by looking at case examples of Hull and Sheffield, two cities which were hit extremely hard during the summer 2007 floods. Through the conduction of 38 semi-structured interviews and the distribution of a postal questionnaire with a response rate of 8.7%, it was found that for SME owner/managers flooding is not a significant risk. It is one in a âpackage of disruptionsâ which causes discontinuity to the âorder of businessâ. These perceptions differ to those held by local regulatory bodies. It was revealed that the Environment Agency, Hull City Council and Sheffield City Council are at cross-purposes in regards to the resilience measures implemented to address flooding. This variation leads to the production of a âresponsibility gameâ scenario between SMEs and regulatory bodies, the catalyst for SMEs remaining vulnerable to the risk of flooding.
business underwater resilience small medium_sized extremely important health economy yet continue survival threaten plethora risk daily_basis affect people cause economic loss hazard accordingly aim_explore flood risk perspective look case example hull sheffield two_city extremely hard flood semi_structured_interview distribution postal questionnaire_response rate find owner flood significant risk package disruption cause discontinuity order business perception differ held local regulatory body revealed environment agency hull city council sheffield city council cross regard resilience measure implement address variation lead production responsibility game scenario regulatory body catalyst remain vulnerable risk