Act or Wait-and-See? Adversity, Agility, and Entrepreneur Wellbeing across Countries during the COVID-19 Pandemic. (May 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Stephan, Ute; Zbierowski, Przemysław; Pérez-Luño, Ana; Wach, Dominika; Wiklund, Johan; Alba Cabañas, Marisleidy; Barki, Edgard; Benzari, Alexandre; Bernhard-Oettel, Claudia; Boekhorst, Janet A.; Dash, Arobindu; Efendic, Adnan; Eib, Constanze; Hanard, Pierre-Jean; Iakovleva, Tatiana; Kawakatsu, Satoshi; Khalid, Saddam; Leatherbee, Michael; Li, Jun; Parker, Sharon K.; Qu, Jingjing; Rosati, Francesco; Sahasranamam, Sreevas; Salusse, Marcus A. Y.; Sekiguchi, Tomoki; Thomas, Nicola; Torrès, Olivier; Tran, Mi Hoang; Ward, M.K.; Williamson, Amanda Jasmine; Zahid, Muhammad Mohsin;
• Other Names: Batjargal Bat guest-editor.; Jack Sarah guest-editor.; Mickiewicz Tomasz guest-editor.; Stam Erik guest-editor.; Stam Wouter guest-editor.; Wennberg Karl guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Entrepreneurship theory and practice. Volume 47:Number 3(2023)
• Page Start: 682
• Page End: 723
• Publication Date: 2023-05
• Subjects: entrepreneurship -- wellbeing -- agility -- crisis -- life satisfaction -- subjective vitality -- stress -- COVID-19 pandemic -- adversity -- resilience; Small business -- Periodicals; New business enterprises -- Periodicals; Entrepreneurship -- Periodicals; 658.421
• DOI: 10.1177/10422587221104820
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1042-2587

Abstract

How can entrepreneurs protect their wellbeing during a crisis? Does engaging agility (namely, opportunity agility and planning agility) in response to adversity help entrepreneurs safeguard their wellbeing? Activated by adversity, agility may function as a specific resilience mechanism enabling positive adaption to crisis. We studied 3162 entrepreneurs from 20 countries during the COVID-19 pandemic and found that more severe national lockdowns enhanced firm-level adversity for entrepreneurs and diminished their wellbeing. Moreover, entrepreneurs who combined opportunity agility with planning agility experienced higher wellbeing but planning agility alone lowered wellbeing. Entrepreneur agility offers a new agentic perspective to research on entrepreneur wellbeing.