Entrepreneurial resiliency, innovation, and change during the COVID-19 Crisis

Entrepreneurship is a critical part of the Government's economic development efforts and is a major goal for local and devolved governments. However, the COVID-19 crisis threatens many entrepreneurial firms. Existing research on crisis management and resiliency is oriented towards large multinational firms and gives little guidance to how entrepreneurs can protect their companies and innovate their business models in times of uncertainty. This project will investigate how entrepreneurs across the country are reacting to this crisis. Through interviews with 60+ high-growth commercial and high-impact social entrepreneurs we will identify the immediate strategies entrepreneurs use to limit the damage done to their firms. Repeated interviews over the next 18 months will show how these strategies evolve from damage control to planning how to redeploy their existing resources and create new capabilities to take advantage of new market niches created by the COVID-19 pandemic. These interviews will produce a detailed and nuanced perspective on how entrepreneurs react to crisis and how these reactions change over time. Findings will be rapidly communicated to the entrepreneurial community to share best practices and local and national policymakers to help them craft the most effective policies for aiding the recovery of country's entrepreneurial economy.