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There is a need for research examining how governments and firms responded to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This study investigates the interdependence between governments and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) during the pandemic in relation to the dynamic capabilities and resource dependence theories.

We use World Bank survey data collected immediately before and after the COVID-19 outbreak and a generalized structural equation model to examine the mediating role of government support in the relationship between firm innovation, resilience and survival.

Innovative SMEs exhibited higher resilience and a better chance of survival during the pandemic, partly due to attracting more government support.

This study offers a novel understanding of the government’s role in supporting innovative SMEs during the pandemic. The findings have implications for how government support policies can limit the deadweight effect and the substitution effect.

The emergence of internet-based business models has given rise to online higher education institutions (OHEIs) that offer their undergraduate and graduate degree programs exclusively online with minimal physical presence. Research on OHEIs discusses the need for external legitimacy and resource acquisition, often ignoring the role of quality among these institutions. Hence, this study aims to investigate the role of digital quality of education on OHEIs’ survival.

Guided by four different inter-disciplinary theories, a conceptual framework is offered based on a comprehensive literature review.

The role of digital quality of education in improving the survival and strategic competitiveness of institutions in the US online higher education industry is highlighted.

This conceptual paper highlights how the digital quality of education becomes increasingly important over the life cycle of OHEIs.

The proposed framework suggests that despite the competition provided by traditional and well-entrenched players, OHEIs can improve their survival and competitiveness if they invest strategically in the digital quality of education.

This study offers an overarching conceptual framework developed through an integration of multiple theoretical perspectives and grounded in the US online higher education industry.

The purpose of this study is to examine various key aspects associated with entrepreneurs’ behaviour following a long-term crisis. Specifically, the study compares the perceptions of female and male entrepreneurs operating in Cyprus and Greece concerning success factors and firm performance in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Conceptually, the study considers the organisational adaptation literature (Miles and Snow’s typology).

The views of female and male micro and small firm owners-managers operating in Greece and Cyprus, a total of 406, were gathered through a questionnaire. To analyse the quantitative data, independent samples t-test and exploratory factor analysis were applied.

Participants’ responses reveal similar levels of perceived importance between genders regarding adaptive measures and strategies to confront a long-term crisis, as well as perceived firm performance. Nevertheless, exploratory factor analysis highlights differences in how male/female entrepreneurs perceive actions that, as in the case of financial management, can safeguard the immediate outlook of the firm.

While scholarly discourses on gender and entrepreneurship abound, important knowledge gaps still exist, for instance, in entrepreneurs’ problem-solving strategies adopted by female and male entrepreneurs following crises. In addressing this scholarly gap cross-culturally, that is, drawing on cross-national data (Cyprus and Greece); the present study makes an important contribution. Empirically, the study ascertains similar entrepreneurial behavioural characteristics between female-male entrepreneurs. Theoretically, the study validates Miles and Snow’s typology and develops a theoretical framework linking the typology and dimensions emerging from the empirical findings.

Although scholars in strategic management have identified innovating and exit as firms’ two sequential strategic responses to long-run crisis, the potential interdependency has yet remained implicit. Specifically, in the context of Chinese Privately Owned Enterprises (POEs), this study investigates the interrelationship of these two strategic responses during long-run crisis. Building on resource redeployment perspective, the authors propose that firms tend to simultaneously leverage innovating and exit responses.

The authors use the data from the 2010 Chinese POEs survey to verify how firms in the long-term crisis made strategic responses after the 2008 financial crisis. Besides, the authors utilize Probit regressions as the basic analysis and further employ bivariate Probit regressions to conduct robustness tests.

This study provides empirical evidence confirming that firms in the long-run period of the crisis tend to adopt both exit and innovating strategies at the same time, that is, the strategy of resource redeployment. Moreover, this study further finds that government subsidies, the degree of marketization and firm’s organizational capability could all accentuate the decision-making of firms’ resource redeployment.

The authors thus contribute to the study of strategic responses to crisis in strategic management by dynamically find out the interdependency of two responses and enrich the research on resource redeployment perspective by identifying three influential positive antecedents, adding to the ongoing investigation on positive drivers of resource redeployment.

This paper aims to contribute to the literature on the earnings management (EM)–corporate social responsibility (CSR) relationship as most of the previous studies have been carried out in non-turbulent periods. This study investigates whether CSR affects EM during the pandemic period by testing two hypotheses: the cognitive biases hypothesis and the resilience hypothesis

The difference-in-difference and triple difference approaches are used for a sample of 536 US firms (268 socially responsible firms and 268 matched non-socially responsible counterparts) during the 2017–2021 period. Socially responsible firms are selected from the MSCI KLD 400 Social Index, and matched firms are identified through the propensity score matching method.

The authors find an income-increasing practice for both socially responsible firms and control firms for the whole period and each sub-period. Moreover, socially responsible firms are more likely to manage their earnings (income increasing) than their counterpart. Furthermore, the authors show that CSR commitment exacerbated EM in line with the cognitive biases hypothesis.

This study is the first shed light on the dark side of CSR during pandemic periods.

This study explores resilience learning from uncertainty, taking a holistic view by considering individual, firm and contextual factors. Resilience development is understood by focusing on how uncertainty is related to entrepreneurs and their environment, suggesting that developing resilience needs to be a continuous learning process.

This qualitative study explores factors related to entrepreneurial uncertainty, resilience and learning. Evidence is drawn from interviews with rural entrepreneurs in two regions of Indonesia, and analyzed using a rigorous approach to generate codes, second-order themes and aggregate dimensions for the theoretical contributions.

Uncertainty readiness, uncertainty response and uncertainty opportunity for resilience emerge as the key learning areas from this study. They are related to resilience on a personal, community and systemic level. The proposed framework relates learning from uncertainty to the process of developing resilience for entrepreneurs and their communities.

This study proposes a framework based on resilience motivation and learning from uncertainty as usual. It explores the relationships between uncertainty readiness, responses and opportunities with personal, relational and systemic resilience factors. This contributes to entrepreneurship behavior research at the intersection of organization studies and management in the socio-economic and often informal context of developing countries.

This paper investigates the relationship between intellectual capital development, managerial heuristics and innovation capability among SMEs in Ghana.

A purposive sampling technique was used in the selection of 33 SMEs (Hospitality and Retail Industries) in the Greater Accra Region-Ghana. The study employed a mixed-method approach to investigate the study objectives.

The findings show that intellectual capital development positively predicts innovation capability among SMEs. Further, it was revealed that managerial heuristics are predominant among retailing firms than firms within the hospitality industry.

This study is one of the first to explore intellectual capital development from the viewpoint of managerial heuristics in decision making in times of uncertainties within the context of emerging economies.

This study explores whether the unique organizational form of family firms helps to mitigate the negative effects caused by the announcement of product recalls.

The authors use an event study, for a sample of 2,576 product recalls in the United States (US) automobile industry, between January 2010 and June 2021.

The authors found that stock market's reaction to a product recall announcement is less negative for family firms. This superior performance is partially driven by the family firms' long-term investment horizons and higher strategic emphasis on product quality. However, the relationship between family ownership and cumulative abnormal returns around product recall announcements is nonlinear as the impact of family ownership starts by being positive but becomes negative for higher levels of family ownership. The authors also find that family firm's chief executive officer (CEO) and managerial ownership influence positively the stock market reaction to product recall announcements.

This work has several implications for family firms' management as well as for investors and financial analysts. First, as higher managerial ownership is associated with a greater emphasis on product quality, decreasing stock market losses when a product recall occurs, family firms should consider increasing equity-based compensation. Second, as there seems to exist an optimal proportion of family ownership, family firms should consider the risks of increasing too much their ownership share. Third, investors and financial analysts can use the results in the study to help them in their investment and trading decisions in the stock market.

The authors extend the knowledge of product recalls by studying the under-researched role of the flexible, internally focused culture of family businesses on the stock market reaction to product recalls.

This study aims to investigate the influence of resource slack on the decline of Brazilian companies, with a particular focus on the moderating role of environmental dynamism. The authors specifically examine three types of resource slack: available, potential and recoverable. These represent surplus resources that exceed what is necessary for the organization’s basic operations. The role of environmental dynamism, characterized by rapid changes in customer preferences, technologies and competitive dynamics, is considered as a moderating factor in this relationship.

The authors used data from Brazilian companies spanning from 1997 to 2008. The research sample was composed using the matching-pairs method, which included a group of publicly traded companies that experienced decline (43 companies) and a group that did not (40 companies) within the specified timeframe.

Findings of this study indicate that the presence of available slack, being more liquid resources, decreases the likelihood of organizational decline. Furthermore, the moderation effect of potential resource slack can mitigate decline in companies operating in dynamic industries.

This research provides valuable insights into the impact of slack resources on potential organizational turnarounds. Given the relative scarcity of resources in these companies compared to those in developed countries, whether they be financial, human or technological, the study highlights the unique influence of slack in a less explored institutional environment. This research underscores the importance of examining the decline of Brazilian companies from a broader perspective, emphasizing that decisions regarding resource use can have significant implications on a company’s trajectory, either amplifying or mitigating its decline.

¿Cuál es el impacto del slack de recursos en el declive de grandes empresas brasileñas? Para responder a esta pregunta, hemos probado hipótesis por separado para tres tipos de salck de recursos: disponible, potencial y recuperable. Estos excedentes consisten en recursos en exceso más allá de lo necesario para mantener la organización funcionando.

Desarrollamos un estudio empírico cuantitativo y longitudinal con datos de empresas brasileñas de 1997 a 2008. Adoptamos el método de pares emparejados, componiendo la muestra de investigación con un grupo de empresas cotizadas en bolsa que declinaron (43 empresas) y otro que no declinó (40 empresas) en el período de tiempo.

Encontramos que la disponibilidad de recursos más líquidos reduce la posibilidad de declive. El efecto de moderación en el slack de recursos potenciales para empresas en industrias dinámicas puede mitigar el declive.

Esta investigación contribuye a una mejor comprensión del efecto del excedente en posibles recuperaciones. Extender los estudios de recursos excedentes al contexto de empresas brasileñas mostró la influencia que el excedente ejerce en un ambiente institucional relativamente menos explorado. Ya sea financiero, humano o tecnológico, la escasez de recursos es más pronunciada que en empresas de países desarrollados. Esta investigación llama la atención sobre el hecho de que la declinación de empresas brasileñas se analiza desde una perspectiva más amplia. Las decisiones sobre cómo la empresa usa sus recursos pueden afectar positiva o negativamente la declinación de las empresas, reforzando la importancia de discutir esta relación.

A Qual é o impacto da folga de recursos no declínio de grandes empresas brasileiras? Para responder a essa pergunta, testamos hipóteses separadamente para três tipos de folga de recursos: disponível, potencial e recuperável. Essas folgas consistem em recursos além do necessário para manter a organização funcionando.

Desenvolvemos um estudo empírico quantitativo e longitudinal com dados de empresas brasileiras de 1997 a 2008. Adotamos o método de pares combinados, compondo a amostra de pesquisa com um grupo de empresas de capital aberto que declinaram (43 empresas) e outro que não declinou (40 empresas) no período.

Descobrimos que a disponibilidade de recursos mais líquidos reduz a possibilidade de declínio. O efeito moderador na folga de recursos potenciais para empresas em indústrias dinâmicas pode mitigar o declínio.

Esta pesquisa contribui para uma melhor compreensão do efeito da folga sobre possíveis recuperações. A extensão dos estudos de folgas de recursos para o contexto de empresas brasileiras mostrou a influência que a folga exerce em um ambiente institucional relativamente menos explorado. Seja financeiro, humano ou tecnológico, a escassez de recursos é mais pronunciada do que em empresas de países desenvolvidos. Esta pesquisa chama a atenção para o fato de que o declínio de empresas brasileiras é analisado sob uma perspectiva mais ampla. Decisões sobre como a empresa usa seus recursos podem afetar positiva ou negativamente o declínio das empresas, reforçando a importância de discutir essa relação.

Knowledge sharing enables a firm’s absorptive capacity to reconfigure its dynamic capabilities to sense, track and recognise embryonic business opportunities. Entrepreneurial opportunity recognition triggers entrepreneurs to invest in and upgrade their knowledge practices to improve entrepreneurial performance. This study aims to examine the relationship between knowledge sharing and absorptive capacity on entrepreneurial orientation as well as the moderating effect of opportunity recognition and the mediating effect of absorptive capacity.

A quantitative cross-sectional research design was applied to data from Algerian small and medium-sized enterprise managers in middle- to top-management positions. The final analysis using smart PLS included 246 respondents.

Knowledge sharing positively influenced entrepreneurial orientation and absorptive capacity. In addition, the findings reveal that entrepreneurial orientation positively influences entrepreneurial performance, and opportunity recognition strengthens the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial performance. Entrepreneurial orientation and absorptive capacity have partial mediating effects.

This study focuses on how firms create and share developed knowledge to enable absorptive capacity to fit a level of entrepreneurial orientation. This study validates the vital impact of opportunity recognition as a leading motivation for entrepreneurial orientation. The results highlight an important area of research and suggest that firms should focus on knowledge sharing to boost entrepreneurial outcomes.

The notions of entrepreneurship, absorptive capacity and knowledge sharing are extended by building on dynamic capability theory. Knowledge sharing increases absorptive capacity, which drives superior entrepreneurial orientation outcomes.