ABSTRACT
PurposeAlthough a body of studies investigates how networking capabilities (NCs) form and maintain interorganizational relationships that affect firm performance, little is known about this relationship in crisis contexts. This article explores managers' perceptions of environmental uncertainties and how this perception influences NC development and subsequent firm performance, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used a quantitative research approach to complete this objective, utilizing primary data from a survey of North American firms (N = 212), mostly (62.3%) small- and medium-sized. Data were analyzed via the partial least squares structural equation modeling technique.FindingsThe authors found that managers' perception of environmental uncertainties positively impacts the NCs to initiate and develop relationships, which is associated with better firm performance during crises. The capability to initiate and develop relationships supports the firm's access to relevant resources that may be converted into business performance.Originality/valueBy analyzing managers' perceptions of environmental uncertainties and the development of NCs, the study results expand upon previous research by highlighting that starting new relationships and developing existing ones may be an efficient managerial response immediately after a crisis occurs.
ABSTRACT
The entrepreneurial firms may be more vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the entrepreneurs of entrepreneurial firms are also threatened by the revenues decline and business failure, which vehemently affect their well-being. The mental health of the entrepreneur decides whether the entrepreneurial firms can make the right decision, which is related to the healthy development of the entrepreneurial firms. Based on the event system theory and the cognitive appraisal theory, this paper aims to explore the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on the entrepreneur anxiety, and the threat perception and performance pressure are introduced to investigate the mediating mechanism and boundary of this effect. Using the simple random sampling to obtain questionnaire survey data, 168 entrepreneurs of entrepreneurial firms have participated in the empirical study, and the research results are as follows. First, the COVID-19 pandemic significantly positively affects entrepreneur anxiety. Second, the entrepreneur threat perception plays a mediating role between the COVID-19 pandemic and the entrepreneur anxiety, which means the COVID-19 pandemic can enhance the external threat perception of entrepreneurs, and then affect the entrepreneur anxiety. Third, the positive effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the entrepreneur anxiety is strengthened by the entrepreneur performance pressure, while the positive effect of entrepreneur threat perception on entrepreneur anxiety is weakened by the entrepreneur performance pressure. The above findings are helpful to explore the mechanism of the COVID-19 pandemic and other critical crisis events on entrepreneurs' mental health from the new perspective of cognitive appraisal theory and event system theory, filling the research gaps between the COVID-19 pandemic and entrepreneur anxiety. Besides, this study broadens the applied range of the cognitive appraisal theory and the event system theory in the fields of crisis situations and entrepreneur research, and enriches the research outputs. Furthermore, this study will help provide a new theoretical analysis insight for the related research on how the COVID-19 pandemic affects entrepreneurs' psychology, and further deepen researchers to understand the mechanism of entrepreneur anxiety under the COVID-19 pandemic, providing theoretical inspirations for reducing entrepreneur anxiety. What's more, this study finds that individual pressure can affect their cognitive appraisal, which means that future research should take the pressure influential mechanism into consideration in the process of exploring "external stimulus--cognitive appraisal--emotional response," further expanding the theoretical model of cognitive appraisal proposed from the perspective of pressure.
ABSTRACT
Careful investment of social and human capital within the organisation structure has been believed to improve the performance of the workforce and firms and is also observed to have a constructive impact on the firm and employee performance. A superior human capital and social capital is the accelerator of a firm's growth. While entrepreneurial firms are agile in themselves, they need to have strong ties with their customers, clients, teams/employees, investors, ecosystem and industry experts, debtors, vendors, subcontractors, etc. and here the need and benefits of social skills not only among owners/founders but also in their teams and employees are always in high demand. A young enterprise faces many challenges, the same as any giant corporate firm. Founders often experience that they are working against the clock in managing both business and human resource challenges, even though they do agree that the entrepreneurial-agile and high-performance-driven culture should not be a substitute for an ethical-courageous-people-friendly culture. This chapter discusses various challenges and issues faced by small and medium businesses and employees of small business firms at their level, and how both parties collectively are trying to support and overcome these challenges, so as to make the work as effective as possible. The chapter is prepared through a comprehensive literature review and data/information has been derived from various secondary sources with a discussion with some start-up founders and small business owners. The chapter also focused on other challenges such as related to human resource development practices, innovation, decision making, and the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on some small businesses are also discussed. The chapter also shares recommended solutions to alter current practices, policies, and processes which can help in addressing operative challenges and can help in developing sustainable practices. © 2022 World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.