ABSTRACT
The emergence of new digital technologies has transformed entrepreneurship and, very likely, enabled many new and established ventures to avoid bankruptcy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital technologies are key to identifying, evaluating and exploiting opportunities, scaling a venture's competitiveness, improving efficiency and innovating, especially during uncertain times. We explore how digital technologies reinvented entrepreneurial resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic and distill the digital artifacts, platforms and infrastructures used by entrepreneurs to demonstrate entrepreneurial resilience. We analyzed 42 reflective interviews featuring successful entrepreneurs from How I Built This "Resilience Series" podcast that explore how entrepreneurs responded to the COVID-19 crisis. We adopted a systematic approach to identify and describe the behaviors, actions and strategies related to digitalization to reinvent the business in the uncertain and resource-constrained context of COVID-19. The data analysis yielded thirteen first-order codes categorized into five second-order themes: creative digital pivoting, digital infrastructures, social impact through digital technology, burdens to digital adoption, and growth through digitalization. These second-order themes reveal to function as both enablers and barriers to entrepreneurial resilience in this adverse context. Our exploratory analysis suggests how digitalization influences entrepreneurial resilience.
ABSTRACT
The emergence of new digital technologies has transformed entrepreneurship and, very likely, enabled many new and established ventures to avoid bankruptcy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital technologies are key to identifying, evaluating and exploiting opportunities, scaling a venture's competitiveness, improving efficiency and innovating, especially during uncertain times. We explore how digital technologies reinvented entrepreneurial resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic and distill the digital artifacts, platforms and infrastructures used by entrepreneurs to demonstrate entrepreneurial resilience. We analyzed 42 reflective interviews featuring successful entrepreneurs from How I Built This "Resilience Series” podcast that explore how entrepreneurs respond to the COVID-19 crisis. We adopted a systematic approach (Gioia et al., 2013) to identify and describe the behaviors, actions and strategies related to digitalization to reinvent the business in the uncertain and resource-constrained context of COVID-19. The data analysis yielded thirteen first-order codes categorized into five second-order themes: creative digital pivoting;digital infrastructures;social impact through digital technology, burdens to digital adoption, and growth through digitalization. These second-order themes reveal to function as both enablers and barriers to entrepreneurial resilience in this adverse context. Our exploratory analysis suggests how digitalization influences entrepreneurial resilience.
ABSTRACT
PurposeThis paper explores community college entrepreneurship education's near-instantaneous transition to online course delivery following the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachPrimary data were obtained from 92 community college entrepreneurship faculty via online survey in late March of 2020, right at the time faculty were required to transition their courses to an online mode of delivery due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected in partnership with the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship and the Entrepreneurship Education Project.FindingsWhile the majority of community college entrepreneurship educators have taught online previously, many were not familiar with exemplar education technology tools and applications, demonstrating an opportunity for continued professional development. To deliver courses online, educators primarily relied on pre-recorded lectures and using Zoom as the technology platform of choice. Last, there were significant faculty concerns about their ability to effectively create an “experiential” classroom virtually for students to learn and practice entrepreneurship.Originality/valueThis is the first paper investigating how community college entrepreneurship educators responded to one of the most disruptive events to ever impact entrepreneurship education (viz. the COVID-19 pandemic). More broadly, this is also one of very few studies exploring both (1) community college entrepreneurship education and (2) how unexpected crises (e.g. natural disasters, pandemics) impact educational environments.