Tariffs and Small Business

This research paper explores how retailers based in U.S. change their operations and strategies in response to tariff shock, especially the U.S.-China trade war of 2018-2022. The current research has evaluated tariff effects on trade movements and market prices and consumer benefits, yet it lacks understanding of how retail managers perceive and handle these matters at their organizational level. The research addresses this knowledge gap through interviews with retail managers, procurement officers and supply chain directors who made business decisions because of the tariffs. The research will use the interpretivist phenomenological approach to interview 10 - 12 participants who had to make tariff-related decisions in their business. The resulting information will be reviewed with thematic analysis while NVivo qualitative software will help with the analysis. The research design enables researchers to identify patterns in managerial views and organizational approaches including supply chain adjustments and pricing decisions and vendor interactions and leadership responses to trade uncertainties. The research findings will provide three significant benefits. To begin with, they will add qualitative insight to the literature since it is quantitative research that is dominant in the field. Second, they will produce insights that are practical to assist the retail managers to enhance resilience in their supply chains, optimize their pricing mechanisms, and transform organizational practices amidst tariff shocks. Third, they will contribute to policy discussions by providing firm-level insights into the impacts of trade policies on business behavior with implications that are frequently ignored in macroeconomic analyses.