Adaptive responses and asset strategies: the experience of rural micro-firms and Foot and Mouth Disease

The 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) epidemic effectively closed large parts of the UK countryside for several months. Local firms found their operations disrupted and suffered losses of trade. The individual and collective experiences of affected firms provide vivid insights into how rural busines...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of rural studies 2004-04, Vol.20 (2), p.227-243
Main Authors: Phillipson, Jeremy, Bennett, Katy, Lowe, Philip, Raley, Marian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
agribusiness
Animal Husbandry
Animals
Business
Business planning
Case Studies
Coping responses
coping strategies
Diseases
Economic aspects
Economic Impact
endowments
England
Family (Sociological Unit)
family resource management
Farm Management
Foot and Mouth Disease
Foreign Countries
Households
Income
longitudinal studies
Rural Areas
Rural conditions
rural development
rural economics
rural micro-business
Rural micro-businesses
rural policy
Small business
small businesses
unemployment
United Kingdom
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Summary:The 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) epidemic effectively closed large parts of the UK countryside for several months. Local firms found their operations disrupted and suffered losses of trade. The individual and collective experiences of affected firms provide vivid insights into how rural businesses and the local economies they constitute operate and react in times of crisis, with important lessons for small business policy and support. Drawing upon survey and case study research the paper presents a critical incident analysis of the impacts of FMD on rural micro-businesses and a review of the resulting adaptive responses. The paper explores the role of variable endowments in influencing the choice of responses available to micro-businesses and identifies those assets which proved to be crucial in enhancing coping capability. The analysis confirms the importance of households in providing resilience to micro-businesses. Households acted as a buffer to many firms, absorbing revenue and employment effects, through adjustments in the wage taken from the business, restrictions in household spend, the deployment of personal savings and the use of household members as a flexible labour reserve.
ISSN:0743-0167
1873-1392
DOI:10.1016/j.jrurstud.2003.08.006