Resumo

The fair-trade economy – mainly those linked to the creative industry – was and is still being harmed because of the pandemic. Because of the restricted social interaction measures, micro-entrepreneurs are adopting a digital transformation process to sell their products on social networks. Regarding the use of social networks to sell products, there is a term that describes this virtual market, social commerce – or s-commerce –, that is, a way of commercialization that involves social networks as an intermediary between sellers and buyers.

Studies discuss how resilience is happening in organizations, but there is little research regarding the correlations between small creative firms and their workplaces. Along the same lines, Korber and McNaughton (2017) noted that it is necessary to understand precisely how entrepreneurs react to external shocks. Furthermore, Abed (2020) states that there are few empirical studies on the adoption of s-commerce by small businesses. Thus, this study aims to understand the resilience process through micro-entrepreneurs' initiatives in a creative fair to deal with an external shock context.

Resilience and adaptability are important factors to business success since these factors assist companies in overcoming the disturbances and problems that can impair the organization’s development. Besides that, the fast development of the Internet and the increase in social media use are transforming the market. Consumers are using social media to acquire their products more effectively. Thus, this paper uses the resilience, adaptability, and s-commerce lenses to analyze a case.

Due to the interest of the research in understanding the process of resilience and adaptability adopted by micro-entrepreneurs of trade fairs through social commerce, the main research question arises: how was the process, and in which ways were micro-entrepreneurs resilient to deal with government measures? To answer that question, a qualitative case study was carried out since this method assists in understanding the case and the external influences a priori, like the society in which it is inserted and the public policies adopted by the region’s government.

In short, with the collection of data, two types of analysis were needed: (i) content analysis was performed based on the guidelines by Bardin (2016) to code the existing content in the decrees, and (ii) theme analysis was used to categorize the interviews. These two types of analyzes are justified due to their complementation and the differences in the data.

Social commerce is a great tool to meet the need for sales and, superficially, the need for interaction with the public. However, the absence of the fair’s warmth and atmosphere encourages the willingness of merchants to return to the physical environment, even if they can sell more through social media.

Andres, L., & Round, J. (2015). The creative economy in a context of transition: A review of the mechanisms of micro-resilience. Cities, 45, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2015.02.003. Bardin, L. (2016). Análise de conteúdo. 3ª. Lisboa: Edições, 70(1), 277. Korber, S., & McNaughton, R. B. (2017). Resilience and entrepreneurship: a systematic literature review. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-10-2016-0356. Martin, R. (2012). Regional economic resilience, hysteresis and recessionary shocks. Journal of economic geography, 12(1), 1