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When there is a crisis, there is an opportunity? SMEs' capabilities for durability and opportunity confidence

Argyro (Iro) Nikiforou (Centre for Technology Entrepreneurship, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark)
Spyros Lioukas (Department of Management Science and Technology, Athens University of Economics and Business, Athens, Greece)
Erifili-Christina Chatzopoulou (Department of Management Science and Technology, Athens University of Economics and Business, Athens, Greece)
Irini Voudouris (Department of Management Science and Technology, Athens University of Economics and Business, Athens, Greece)

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research

ISSN: 1355-2554

Article publication date: 20 April 2023

Issue publication date: 16 May 2023

534

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine what makes some firms, but not others, see a crisis as an opportunity to become entrepreneurial. Specifically, it examines how two key capabilities for durability—(unabsorbed) slack resources and external market networks—influence small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)’ “opportunity confidence”, a term recently coined to denote the subjective assessment of the extent to which a crisis is a good (bad) basis for entrepreneurial activities, such as the introduction of new products/services and new market entry.

Methodology

Analysis of hand-collected survey data from 138 SMEs in Greece — a country hit hard by the 2008 economic crisis.

Findings

The findings reveal that an SME's number of network contacts has a positive effect on opportunity confidence, whereas firm slack resources lack a direct effect. It is, in fact, at low levels of firm slack resources that network returns are higher, especially for older firms. An extension to the main analysis also shows that opportunity confidence is linked to firm sales growth.

Practical implications

Understanding what makes some firms, but not others, see a crisis as an opportunity will help build an extensive and solid knowledge base and get ready for the next big (or small) crisis, which is inevitable to occur. Besides the grants and subsidies that policymakers often provide to SMEs in times of crisis, they may also need to consider organizing actions that support the extraversion and networking of SMEs—that can be done in a variety of ways due to the rise of teleworking and online collaboration platforms since the onset of the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

Originality/value

This paper draws linkages between the “external enabler perspective” and the burgeoning resilience literature and illustrates empirically what makes some SMEs, but not others, view an economic crisis as a good basis for entrepreneurial activities—that is a manifestation of early-stage entrepreneurial behavior and a necessary condition before taking entrepreneurial action in times of crisis. By so doing, this study extends research on resilience that has explained the role of “capabilities for durability” as a means of surviving through a crisis by revealing that these capabilities do not necessarily translate into capabilities for renewal that will help firms to bounce forward in response to the crisis. It also points to the “dark side” of capabilities for durability and, by implication, of resilience.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Co-Editor Jonathan Scott and three anonymous reviewers for their constructive and developmental feedback.

Citation

Nikiforou, A.(I)., Lioukas, S., Chatzopoulou, E.-C. and Voudouris, I. (2023), "When there is a crisis, there is an opportunity? SMEs' capabilities for durability and opportunity confidence", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 29 No. 5, pp. 1053-1074. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-11-2021-0939

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited

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