Small Business Disaster Recovery in the United States

Abstract

Natural disasters pose significant challenges to small businesses, as they are more vulnerable to shocks. Their recovery is crucial to the resilience of communities. This literature review explores the topic of US small business disaster recovery by examining research in economics, management, and disaster studies. The review highlights a consensus among small business researchers that even within the small business sector, size matters. There is an understanding that space and time play a crucial role not only in the recovery process itself but also in how researchers may need to measure recovery. A common thread is that the recovery process may not have a prescriptive endpoint, and that the endpoint to recovery may be in the eye of the beholder. The review exposes significant gaps in the literature, particularly regarding long-term recovery processes, standardized measurement metrics, and the complicated dynamics between business and household recovery.