Abstract:

The Covid-19 pandemic has dealt a blow to many sectors, one of which is the economic sector. Dominated by micro, small, and medium-scale businesses, the Indonesian economy has a very high dependence on the sustainability of MSME businesses. Before the pandemic, MSMEs had always been the backbone of the Indonesian economy. However, the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic presented its challenges, in which most MSMEs were able to survive and grow their business, but some did not. The research is aimed at finding the determinants of the economic resilience of MSMEs during a pandemic. The search for answers was carried out with in-depth interviews with MSME actors whose businesses survived during the pandemic. The results of the study provide clues to the existence of internal factors and external factors that affect the economic resilience of MSMEs. Internal factors include the entrepreneurial spirit of business actors, namely persistent, creative, innovative, and keen to see opportunities. External factors include government policies in controlling the spread of the virus, namely imposing restrictions on community activities and provisions for businesses to implement hygiene, reduce touch, reduce crowds, and reduce mobility. The research findings confirm that entrepreneurial spirit plays an important role in determining business success. Furthermore, the existence of government policies is something that must be obeyed by business actors and that is precisely what motivates business actors not to give up, to be more creative and innovative, and to see that for every problem there must be a solution.