Socio-economic conditions and small business vulnerability to climate change impacts in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

Small and micro businesses bear the brunt of climate change impacts in the climate-challenged economy. Vulnerability is embedded into the socio-economic trajectories of their primary decision-makers. Multiple vulnerabilities may arise if the decision-makers’ socio-economic conditions are associated with climate-sensitive business characteristics. Previous research has provided little evidence on such linkages, thus losing insights into how different facets of vulnerability interact and evolve over time. This paper explores the interactions between elements of small business vulnerability and the socio-economic characteristics of their primary decision-makers. It draws on the results of a survey involving 116 owner-managers of small and micro businesses and in-depth interviews with a sub-sample. Study areas are three remote coastal communities in Hong Kong exposed to high floods. Results show that such interactions exist in multiple, non-linear ways. Socio-economic disadvantages (i.e. low education attainment, old age, low income, and female) are related to some aspects of small business vulnerability, while playing a role in mitigating or avoiding other aspects of it. The findings call for building frameworks that account for the multiple spheres in which vulnerabilities are engendered and their interactions, while allowing for complexities and feedback mechanisms.

KEYWORDS:

• Small business
• vulnerability
• climate change
• flooding
• adaptation
• China

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Start-up Research Grant, EdUHK (RG72/2014-2015R) for providing funding support to this research project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Alex Y Lo is Senior Lecturer in Climate Change at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He is an environmental social scientist specializing in the study of public and policy response to climate change. His current projects focus on climate change adaptation and economic development, and the futures of carbon emission trading in China, Australia, and New Zealand.

Shuwen Liu is a Research Fellow of Public and Social Policy Research Centre and an Assistant Professor at the School of Arts and Social Sciences at the Open University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include tourism and sustainable livelihoods, sustainable tourism in protected areas, and sense of place.

Lewis T.O. Cheung is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Sciences of the Education University of Hong Kong. His research interests focus on sustainable tourism in protected areas, climate change adaptation in tourism, environmental education, and environmental conservation.

ORCID

Alex Y Lo http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5953-4176

Shuwen Liu http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1188-1152

Lewis T.O. Cheung http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1619-0473

Notes

1 The earlier study was about sustainable tourism development and sense of place, and did not involve anything about extreme weather and business vulnerability. The participants responded to a different questionnaire from the one upon which the present study is based.