DISRUPTED MARKET CONDITIONS AMIDST COVID-19 PANDEMIC: BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES FOR MSMEs

This study aimed to assess the market disruptions on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) amidst the pandemic. One hundred five respondents from 12 dry mix manufacturing companies in NCR, Central Luzon and CALABARZON were interviewed using a self-developed questionnaire. The market disruptions were assessed using PESTEL Analysis for external factors and SWOT Analysis for internal factors. Results reveal based on PESTEL, the average weighted mean for legal factors is the highest at 4.46; followed by both political and economic factors at 4.39, technological at 4.37, sociological at 4.32, and environmental at 4.26. All the factors got a (100) descriptive interpretation of Very Much Agree. For SWOT, all factors got a descriptive interpretation of Very Much Agree except for Weaknesses which got an interpretation of Agree. Statistical analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses. There was no significant difference between the profile of the respondents as to age, gender (150), salary and length of service and the six PESTEL factors except for education which was found to have significant differences for three factors (political, economic, and technological). For company profile, there is no significant difference between the number of years in the market and the external factors; for the type of organization, there is no significant difference with economic, technological and environmental factors; for the number of employees, there is no significant difference with sociological and environmental factors. Recommendations were made for to help MSMEs recover from the negative effects of Covid-19 which remains a global threat, especially for businesses.