An engaged university: Rescuing SMES during the COVID-19 crisis

An engaged university: Rescuing SMES during the COVID-19 crisis

Daniela Francisco Brauner, Fernanda Maciel Reichert, Raquel Janissek-Muniz, Aurora Carneiro Zen, Daniela Callegaro de Menezes, Lisiane Quadrado Closs, Wendy Beatriz Witt Haddad Carraro, Carla Simone Ruppenthal, Fernanda Maria Müller, Marcelo Soares Lubaszewski, Marisa Ignez S. Rhoden

The economic effects of isolation policies resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic have led small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to look for alternatives to survive. Within this crisis scenario, an engaged university has an important role to play in a regional context in addressing not only health issues, but also any resultant social and economic problems. An engaged university needs to take actions that go beyond its traditional missions of education and research - it has to deliver knowledge to society. This paper analyzes a university-community project in Brazil to identify the necessary elements that help promote a regionally-engaged university: the SOS-PME Advisory Network project, which was originally designed to assist SMEs during the crisis. As a result, we identified elements necessary for promoting the university’s third mission - social engagement by way of a university-community project: an engaged team, multidisciplinarity, project management, agility, alliances, a communication strategy, institutional support, and reputation.

2020

covid-19, engagement, project management, SMEs, engaged university

http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0034-759020200607

RAE: Revista de Administração de Empresas

Fundação Getulio Vargas

Business