| dc.description.abstract | Our qualitative study of 13 Norwegian startups, aim to answer how the
entrepreneurial stage affects resilience in terms of opportunity recognition and
exploitation, obtaining funding, and exploiting network ties. The sample is
divided into three stages of business development and covers various sectors.
Results confirm that startups in the early stages can more easily recognize and
exploit arbitrage opportunities due to their size, hence, these firms are short-term
resilient. Contrary, later stage startups with access to more resources and stronger
networks can benefit from lasting market changes, consequently making them
long-term resilient. Sector, governmental restrictions, and digitalization also
played a significant role in the entrepreneurs’ ability to perceive and act on
opportunities, thus, affecting their resilience. Further, later stage firms hold strong
and formalized ties that supply these firms with valuable information and
resources. Contrarily, early stage startups have weaker ties and scarce networks
that provide these ventures with general information and fewer resources. Later
stage startups are therefore perceived as more resilient. As a result, early stage
startups turned to institutional support and digital social networks to counter weak
ties and increase resilience. Moreover, the strong social ties that later stage
startups hold correspond with the ability to obtain funding, while weak ties and
decentralized networks caused early stage startups to rely on institutional actors.
Surprisingly, it became evident that the national schemes failed to sufficiently
cater to new ventures, thus, making the entrepreneurs less resilient. Despite highly
interdependent variables, the strongest link in found in the network exploitation
factor. The ability of a startup to utilize its network was significant in all stages
and increased the resilience in the other variables.
To increase resilience, early stage startups should focus on proactive network
development. On the contrary, we recommend a more collaborative approach for
later stage firms in terms of network and continuous development of their
innovative culture. For all startups, we advise expanding and nurture potential
investor ties to increase their resilience. Furthermore, institutional actors ought to
tailor support schemes, frameworks, and procedures to advocate for new ventures’
resilience. Lastly, startups must digitize their operations to adapt in the event of a
similar crisis rapidly. | en_US |
