Durant Covid

Small Bus Econ (2022) 59:1351–1380
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-021-00588-0
Contextualizing small business resilience

during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from small
business owner-managers
Elias Hadjielias · Michael Christofi ·
Shlomo Tarba
Accepted: 10 November 2021 / Published online: 28 January 2022

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2021
Abstract In light of the unprecedented global crisis Plain English Summary The psychological resil-
caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, resilient busi- ience of owner-managers provides novel insights
nesses are those more likely to make the transition to towards a better understanding of small business resil-
the post-COVID era. Our study draws on the concept ience during exogenous shocks, such as the COVID-
of psychological resilience and focusses on individual 19 pandemic. Psychological resilience involves an
owner-managers to the end of examining business individual’s ability to adapt or thrive in the face of
resilience in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. life’s adversities and uncertainties. We conduct a
We conduct a longitudinal qualitative study, collect- longitudinal qualitative study, collecting data from
ing data from 35 small business owner-managers 35 small business owner-managers between April
between April and December 2020. Our findings— and December 2020. We reveal a sequential process
which provide insights into the micro-underpinnings centred on owner-managers and on their abilities to
of the resilience exhibited by small business in build-up or strengthen any personal and leadership
response to the COVID-19 pandemic—illustrate the resilient capacities, which appear to be prerequisites
responses and resilient qualities of owner-managers at for the establishment of resilient actions at the level
both the personal and leadership levels, which facili- of the small business. We contribute theoretically
tate resilient actions at the small business level. By by conceptualizing the links and path dependencies
drawing on a psychological perspective, our study between personal, leadership (role), and organiza-
provides a novel conceptualization of small business tional resilience in small businesses. In conclusion,
resilience at the person-role-organization nexus. our study provides practical implications on essential
personal-level responses that can guide the leadership
E. Hadjielias (*) · M. Christofi role of owner-managers in the midst of the continuing
School of Management and Economics, Cyprus University COVID-19 pandemic.
of Technology, 30 Archbishop Kyprianos Street,
3036 Limassol, Cyprus
Keywords Small business · Psychological
e-mail: [email protected]
resilience · Organizational resilience · Leadership
M. Christofi
resilience · Owner-manager · COVID-19 pandemic
S. Tarba JEL classification L26

Birmingham Business School, University
of Birmingham, University House, Edgbaston Park Road,
Birmingham B15 2TY, UK
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1352 E. Hadjielias et al.
1 Introduction & Bansal, 2016), it is likely that resilient firms will

effectively make the transition to the post-COVID era
The SARS-CoV-2 virus (which is causing the (Bryce et al., 2020).
COVID-19 pandemic) first emerged in Wuhan, In smaller businesses, owner-managers usually
China, in December 2019, and immediately had a sig- wield a pervasive influence (Gibson & Cassar, 2005;
nificant impact on people, businesses, the economy, Mc Cartan-Quinn & Carson, 2003), playing a crucial
and society as a whole (Fairlie & Fossen, 2021; McK- role in filling any resource gaps and engaging in prac-
ibbin & Fernando, 2020). In a race to mitigate the tices (e.g. innovation) and making decisions aimed at
spread of COVID-19, most nations have responded keeping the business viable in times of crisis (Hutch-
by implementing a variety of measures involving inson, 1995; Kevill, Trehan, & Easterby-Smith, 2017;
closing or hardening national borders; locking down Werner, Schröder, & Chlosta, 2018). Conversely, any
and quarantining regions or cities; imposing cur- vulnerability exhibited by owner-managers in coping
fews, limitations to people’s movements, and physi- with adverse circumstances (e.g. through increased
cal distancing; banning events and gatherings; and levels of stress, anxiety, burnout, rumination, and
restricting the ways in which businesses could oper- general negativity) can diminish the chances for small
ate, including closing nonessential ones (Anderson business survival (Chadwick & Raver, 2020; Schon-
et al., 2020). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and feld & Mazzola, 2015; Torrès et al., 2021). To study
the ensuing governmental lockdown measures, socio- the role played by owner-managers faced by adverse
economic systems across the globe are transitioning exogenous shocks, we focussed on individual resil-
to a ‘new normal’, with changes in the ways people ience, which is an intrapersonal resource linked to
interact (Brammer, Branicki, & Linnenluecke, 2020) ‘the sum total of dynamic psychological processes
and businesses transact and with higher levels of eco- that permit individuals to maintain or return to previ-
nomic uncertainty (Brammer et al., 2020; Donthu & ous levels of well-being and functioning in response
Gustafsson, 2020). to adversity’ (Lee et al., 2013: p. 327). A handful
Many businesses around the world have been of studies have hinted that the resilience of small
largely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic (Bram- businesses is influenced by the practices and behav-
mer et al., 2020; Donthu & Gustafsson, 2020) with iours enacted by key individuals within them (e.g.
varied responses. Smaller, financially vulnerable, Bullough, Renko, & Myatt, 2014; Herbane, 2019;
businesses faced closure or other serious economic Santoro, Messeni-Petruzzelli, & Del Giudice 2021;
disruptions (Belitski et al., 2021; Khlystova et al., Shepherd, Saade, & Wincent, 2020), including their
2022; Torrès et al., 2021), while healthy firms in sec- owner-managers (Branicki, Sullivan-Taylor, & Livs-
tors heavily impacted by lockdown measures (e.g. chitz, 2018; Herbane, 2019). For instance, Herbane
travel, tourism, and event organizers) were forced (2019) highlighted that SME resilience is influenced
to reduce their activities or to engage in cost-cutting by the activities and decisions related to planning,
measures (Nepal, 2020). Conversely, other businesses networks, learning, and location made by individual
responded with business renewal and new products owner-managers.
or processes (Ratten, 2020; Seetharaman, 2020). Despite increased evidence for the influence of
For instance, certain companies shifted to platform- factors of various levels on business or organizational
based business models and established online sell- resilience, the resilience literature offers insufficient
ing channels (Baker et al., 2020). Past research has understanding of the ways in which individual and
highlighted the need for businesses to bring about organizational resilience interact within small busi-
changes suited to shield or strengthen them against ness settings (Santoro et al., 2021). At the same time,
any threats brought by exogenous shocks (Korber & individual resilience has not been sufficiently empiri-
McNaughton, 2018), including the survivability ones cally examined in the small business literature (Bran-
associated with the COVID-19 pandemic (Ratten, icki et al., 2018; Santoro et al., 2021). The few studies
2020; Seetharaman, 2020). Given that effective busi- which have focussed on exploring individual owner-
ness response to exogenous shocks has been associ- manager resilience have produced inconsistent con-
ated with resilience (Dahles & Susilowati, 2015; ceptualizations of the topic (Ayala & Manzano, 2014;
Iborra, Safón, & Dolz, 2019; Ortiz-de-Mandojana Herbane, 2019; Santoro et al., 2021), have made
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Contextualizing small business resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from small… 1353
minimal use of the extant literature on psychological COVID-19 pandemic? We asserted that those individ-
resilience—which may explain individual resilience ual owner-managers who draw upon their psychologi-
(Lee et al., 2013)—and have paid no attention to the cal resilience as a trait and process (a) make broad
process through which psychological resilience ben- cognitive appraisals that the negative consequences
efits individuals and organizations. This fragmented of the pandemic and the negative climate that creates
literature and the weak conceptual basis of the con- anxiety and stressors are seen as challenges that can
cept is problematic (Chadwick & Raver, 2020), con- be minimized and eventually overcome, (b) engage in
sequently hampering our knowledge with regard a reflective process, which enables them to draw on
to the role played by the owner-managers’ (psycho- past knowledge and life events to engage in adaptive
logical) resilience on that of small businesses in the behaviours, (c) develop proactive strategies and pro-
presence of adverse exogenous conditions such as the cesses for their companies, and hence (d) help their
COVID-19 pandemic. firms to bounce back from the negative effects of the
In our study, we applied the concept of psychologi- COVID-19 pandemic. We explored this theoretical
cal resilience to understand its processes and influ- perspective by means of a longitudinal study whereby
ences on small business resilience in the context of we followed small business owners in Cyprus as they
the COVID-19 pandemic, which makes the business operated their businesses from the early stages of the
environment more uncertain (Knight, 1921; Sharma pandemic (April 2020) until December 2020. Hence,
et al., 2020) and threatens small business survival our research provides theoretical coherence suited to
(Doern, 2021). Psychological resilience involves explain the mechanisms whereby psychological resil-
the ability of an individual to adapt or thrive in the ience enables the individual owner-managers of small
face of life’s adversities, uncertainties, and diffi- businesses to cope more efficiently and effectively
cult circumstances (Fletcher & Sarkar, 2013; Kong with the stressful circumstances created by the pan-
et al., 2015). Moreover, psychological resilience is a demic and thus remain in business.
dynamic concept that changes over time and can be We contribute to the literatures on small business
encouraged and developed (Ayala & Manzano, 2014). resilience and organizational resilience in five dis-
Yet, most empirical studies focussing on psychologi- tinct ways. First, we contribute theoretically by con-
cal resilience have been of a cross-sectional nature ceptualizing the links and path dependencies between
(Lee et al., 2013). This has caused difficulties in the personal, leadership (role), and organizational resil-
interpretation of the findings related to the concept. ience in small businesses. Through a bottom-up theo-
This is because, based on the various characteristics rization, by identifying the resilience of individual
exhibited by the business landscape throughout an owner-managers as a key prerequisite for resilient
exogenous crisis, the observation of psychological actions at the business level, we advance the knowl-
resilience at different points in time may reflect (i) edge on concepts, relationships, and processes that
the influence of psychological resilience on owner- have been largely ignored in the small business and
manager resilience and business resilience, (ii) the organizational resilience literatures. Second, by draw-
effects of various mechanisms on the development of ing on psychological resilience (Fletcher & Sarkar,
resilience over time, or (iii) the various benefits that 2013; Kong et al., 2015), we introduce a novel psy-
resilience provides to businesses. chological perspective to the study of organizational
We sought to contribute to the small business liter- resilience. Third, we contribute theoretically to the
ature by carrying out a longitudinal qualitative study small business resilience literature through context-
during the COVID-19 pandemic on the basis of data based theorization, contextualizing our findings and
collected from small business owner-managers. Given theoretical insights within the COVID-19 pandemic.
the central role played by owner-managers within Fourth, we provide new empirical knowledge on the
small businesses (Kevill et al., 2017), their psycho- micro-underpinnings of small business resilience.
logical resilience may influence that of the business. Fifth, we contribute methodologically to the organi-
Consequently, we addressed the following research zational resilience literature by performing a multi-
question: How does psychological resilience, at the level analysis (i.e. at the individual and organizational
individual owner-manager level of analysis, foster the levels) to examine small business resilience.
resilience of small businesses within the context of the
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2 Theoretical background Shepherd et al., 2020). While owner-managers can be

present in both family- and nonfamily-owned firms
In the business literature, resilience has been largely (Chrisman et al., 2016), the former usually pursue
equated with the capacity of a firm to respond effec- goals that involve increasing both financial and soci-
tively to natural (e.g. floods or earthquakes) and oemotional wealth (Chrisman et al., 2016; Rousseau
man-made disasters (e.g. financial crises or wars) et al., 2018) and exhibit stronger stewardship towards
(Dahles & Susilowati, 2015; Iborra, Safón, & Dolz, the firm (Miller & Le Breton-Miller, 2006; Hadjie-
2019; Ortiz-de-Mandojana & Bansal, 2016) through lias, Christofi, & Tarba, 2021). Challenging the well-
changes aimed at shielding or improving the busi- established notion and alluding to the fact that the
ness under harsh conditions (Korber & McNaughton, current literature on family-owned businesses over-
2018). The smaller firm, as a unit, has been the focus looks the contribution of owner-managers in practic-
in studies on resilience (Audretsch & Belitski, 2021; ing resilience, Conz, Lamb, and De Massis (2020)
Iborra et al., 2019; Torres, Marshall, & Sydnor, revealed that resilience is not universal, but multi-
2019). Given the prevalence of small firms across farious, and that the owner-managers’ comprehension
sectors (García, Castillo, & Durán, 2012) and their of resilience determines how it is actually practiced.
resource limitations (Petrou et al., 2020), small firm Despite the limited insights into the influence of
resilience has serious implications for the sustain- owner-manager resilience on family business resil-
ability of local and national socioeconomic systems ience, long-term family ownership orientation and the
(Adekola & Clelland, 2020; Hadjielias et al., 2022). desire to transfer the business to future generations
Yet, the firm features as a dominant unit in the study have been identified as providing the social, finan-
of resilience in the presence of exogenous shocks cial, and emotional capital required to successfully
(e.g., Dahles & Susilowati, 2015; Ortiz-de-Man- cope with emergencies (Calabrò, Frank, Minichilli, &
dojana & Bansal, 2016), despite increasing calls to Suess-Reyes, 2021; Salvato, Sargiacomo, Amore, &
shed light on the micro-dynamics of organizational Minichilli, 2020).
resilience, including the role of individuals (Branicki While how individual owner-manager resilience
et al., 2018). influences small business resilience remains to be
Resilient individuals, particularly owner-manag- seen, in our study, we argued that a focus on the
ers, have been identified as being important to the owner-manager can unlock hidden micro-dynamics
survival of small firms (Ghobakhloo & Tang, 2013; suited to provide new understandings of resilience in
Herbane, 2019; Kevill et al., 2017) because they ben- the midst of exogenous shocks such as the COVID-
efit them with strong intrapersonal propensities to 19 pandemic. To study owner-manager resilience,
look for alternatives under adverse conditions and we drew on the concept of psychological resilience,
with the ability to deal with complex situations and which refers to ‘the ability to thrive in the face of
identify solutions (Renko, Bullough, & Saeed, 2021; risk and adversity, which is crucial for individuals’
Santoro et al., 2021). Interestingly, while a number of mental and physical health’ (Kong et al., 2015: p.
small firm owner-managers can be resilient to adverse 165). Psychological resilience distinguishes those
events and able to keep functioning positively, oth- individuals who are able to withstand or even thrive
ers experience considerable disruption. In explicating when experiencing pressures and difficult circum-
the heterogeneity of findings on individual resilience, stances in their lives (Fletcher & Sarkar, 2013),
prior research has accentuated both the individual such as poverty (Garmezy, 1991). Psychological
owner-managers’ pre-adversity resource endowments resilience has been conceptualized as either a trait
and their cognitive and behavioural responses to such or a process (Fletcher & Sarkar, 2013). In our study,
events (Kevill et al., 2017; Shepherd, Saade, & Win- we value both dimensions of psychological resil-
cent, 2020). ience. As a trait, psychological resilience involves
Those small business studies that have argued for a set of personal characteristics or abilities that ena-
the importance of individual resilience have pointed ble individuals to adapt to adverse circumstances
to the relevance of owner-manager resilience in (Connor & Davidson, 2003). These characteristics
understanding small business resilience (Bullough are clustered into protective and promotive traits,
et al., 2014; Herbane, 2019; Santoro et al., 2021; both of which are essential for individual resilience
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(Fletcher & Sarkar, 2013). ‘Protective’ traits are the we posited that certain traits and personal processes
characteristics—such as self-efficacy (Gu & Day, of small firm owner-managers could be relevant to
2007), self-esteem (Kidd & Shahar, 2008), and pos- the resilience of their firms.
itive emotions (Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004)—that Considering the above, we aimed at gaining a
enable individuals to shield themselves from any multi-level understanding of resilience, focussing
potential negative effects of an experience. ‘Promo- on both its individual and business forms. Given the
tive’ traits are the characteristics that enable indi- central role played by owner-managers within smaller
viduals to gain benefits and succeed in the pres- business settings (Ghobakhloo & Tang, 2013; Kevill
ence of negative events (Fletcher & Sarkar, 2013). et al., 2017), we drew upon psychological resilience
As a process, psychological resilience is linked to a to examine the way their resilience influences that
dynamic process whereby individuals engage with of their small businesses. Thus, our study had the
the self to overcome stressful life events (Flach, potential to uncover the micro-dynamics found within
1988; Moenkemeyer, Hoegl, & Weiss, 2012). The small business resilience, which had hitherto largely
process of psychological resilience explicates the been latent in the literature. Additionally, our study
value of self-reflection, which enables individuals involved an attempt to contextualize (Tsang, 2013)
to learn from past events and engage in adaptive the individual-firm resilience nexus in order to pro-
behaviours (Crane et al., 2020). vide insights into resilience in relation to a specific
Psychological resilience has been mainly used external shock. Research, especially when conducted
in relation to new venture creation (Chadwick & within the small business context, had not hitherto
Raver, 2020), thus contributing to the establish- sufficiently drawn on contextual explanations of resil-
ment of the entrepreneurial resilience construct and ience (e.g., Branicki et al., 2018). We argued that
highlighting that entrepreneurs need to be resil- contextualization is essential in understanding the
ient in order to start new businesses in the midst of specificities of the COVID-19 crisis in regard to the
uncertainty (Bullough & Renko, 2013). However, resilience of both owner-managers and their small
in the entrepreneurship literature, entrepreneurial firms.
resilience has been largely used as a metaphor and
not sufficiently explored empirically (Chadwick &
Raver, 2020). The few studies focussing on indi- 3 Methods
vidual resilience in small firms have linked entre-
preneurial resilience with small business survival 3.1 Research design
and resilience (Branicki et al., 2018; Santoro et al.,
2018). However, small business resilience has not Qualitative inquiry is suited to answering ‘how’ ques-
been explored from a psychological resilience per- tions’ (Yin, 2018) by enabling participants to articu-
spective, which has a pure focus on the individual. late the phenomena occurring within organizations
As clarified by Branicki et al. (2018), entrepreneur- (Pratt, 2009) and by providing contextualized expla-
ial resilience is not the same as the psychological nations for them (Tsang, 2013). In addition, longi-
resilience of the individual. Entrepreneurial resil- tudinal studies are important in understanding the
ience is bound within an entrepreneurial context, dynamic interplay between various concepts (Mosey,
it does not necessarily refer to the individual, and & Wright, 2007). Thus, to learn more about the way
may involve emotions, perceptions, and abilities psychological resilience—at the individual owner-
that are not necessarily linked to individual traits manager level of analysis—fosters the resilience of
(Bernard and Barbosa, 2016; Branicki et al., 2018). small businesses within the context of the COVID-
Instead, an individual’s psychological resilience is 19 pandemic, we drew on a qualitative, longitudinal
firmed within specific personal traits at the protec- research design. In line with Hollensbe et al. (2008),
tive-promotive nexus (Fletcher & Sarkar, 2013), we conducted interviews aimed at gathering differ-
which extends beyond new venture creation and the ent ‘slices’ of data over time, created categories by
organizational context (Branicki et al., 2018). In coding the data, engaged in ongoing comparisons
our study, we drew upon psychological resilience between our findings and extant literature, and con-
to examine the influence of individual resilience, as cluded our data gathering and coding when no new
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findings emerged, thus achieving theoretical satu- single person exercising control of both their owner-
ration. Moreover, as proposed by Hollensbe et al. ship and management (Chrisman, Memili, & Misra,
(2008), our research design did not take a purely 2014).
grounded approach, in that we analysed ‘slices’ of As in many other countries across the globe, the
data over time, and not across different data sources. COVID-19 pandemic and its associated lockdown
Our longitudinal, qualitative study design involved measures and other restrictions have hit the Cypriot
conducting interviews with small business owner- economy and its business landscape hard (ICAEW,
managers during two sessions: one between April and 2020; PWC, 2020). The pandemic has forced the
May 2020 and a second 5 to 6 months later (Octo- Cypriot government to impose a set of measures
ber to December 2020), which is standard practice, aimed at reducing the number of COVID-19 cases
as shown in longitudinal studies published in top in the country, including national and regional lock-
journals within the management field (e.g., Liu et al., downs, the suspension of business activities, restric-
2015; Autio, George, & Alexy, 2011; Hollensbe et al., tions on retail sales, encouragement of working from
2008). home, and the closure of schools and educational
institutions (Reuters, 2021). The European Invest-
3.2 Research site and context ment Bank (2021) highlighted the major impact of
the COVID-19 pandemic on Cypriot businesses, lead-
Our study gathered its data from owner-managers of ing to the closure of many smaller firms and forcing
small privately owned businesses located in Cyprus, a a substantial number of others to abandon or delay
European Union island country situated in the eastern their investments. Yet, through their experience of the
Mediterranean Sea. As its economy is dominated by pandemic and of the related restrictions, small Cyp-
small businesses, Cyprus is ideally suited to the study riot businesses have embraced or are ready to adopt
of their resilience (Hadjimanolis, 1999; Leonidou digital technologies suited to introduce changes in the
et al., 2016a, b). Specifically, 99% of all the country’s way they operate and reach their customers (Euro-
firms are classified as small by the European Com- pean Investment Bank, 2021).
mission, as they employ fewer than 50 employees
(European Commission, 2019). Small Cypriot busi- 3.3 Sampling and data collection
nesses account for 64% of the country’s employment
and generate 55.9% of the total value added, statis- In line with the practices found in studies published in
tics that are both well above the respective EU aver- top business journals (e.g. Grinevich, Huber, Karataş-
ages of 49.8% and 38.4% (European Commission, Özkan, & Yavuz, 2019; Theodoraki, Messeghem, &
2019). Most small Cypriot businesses—approxi- Rice, 2018; Hollensbe et al., 2008), we conducted a
mately 90%—are owned and/or managed by mem- qualitative longitudinal study involving interviews
bers of a founding family (Leonidou et al., 2016a, b; with the individual owner-managers of 35 small Cyp-
Mandl, 2008) and are intended to be handed down to riot businesses that met specific criteria. To select
the next generation or involve an actual generational these companies, we needed to conduct a purposive
movement (Chua, Chrisman, & Sharma, 1999; Heck sampling process (Bell, Bryman, & Harley, 2018;
& Trent, 1999). Small Cypriot family businesses are Yin, 2018; Etikan, Musa, & Alkassim, 2016). In
usually owned and managed by a few controlling particular, the target population had to meet the fol-
family members, and it is common for a single family lowing criteria. First, firms had to be categorized as
member to exercise effective control of the firm (Leo- small. For this criterion, we followed Lai, Saridakis,
nidou et al., 2016a, b; Mandl, 2008). Nevertheless, Blackburn and Johnstone (2016) and adopted the
not all owner-managed small firms are family busi- standard European enterprise size definition, which
nesses. For instance, a significant proportion of small states that businesses with fewer than 50 employ-
businesses across the world are single founder-owned ees are considered small. Second, our sample small
and managed (Deb & Wiklund, 2017; Langowitz & businesses had to be operating in sectors affected
Allen, 2010), and Cyprus is not an exception. Conse- by the COVID 19 pandemic (Pantano et al., 2020).
quently, we focussed on both family and non-family According to McKinsey and Company (2020), these
owner-managed small businesses, which involve a sectors include: arts, entertainment, and recreation;
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accommodation, food, and beverage; educational the conversations (Grinevich, et al., 2019). We con-
services; transportation and warehousing; manufac- ducted two 35-interview sessions: the first included
turing; wholesale trade; administrative and support interviews that lasted 30 to 40 min each and the sec-
services; utilities; finance and insurance; construc- ond 1-h interviews. The interviews were semi-struc-
tion; retail trade (particularly of non-essential goods); tured in order to facilitate the flexible expression of
professional and consultancy services; information the individual owner-managers’ thoughts, emotions,
services; and healthcare. Thus, we excluded, for and ideas and to provide us with the possibility to
instance, pharmacies or supermarkets, as such busi- compare responses across subsequent interviews
nesses deal in essential goods and had remained in and draw lessons (Autio et al., 2011). This data col-
full operation throughout the pandemic (Roggeveen lection approach enabled us to ask both set of ques-
& Sethuraman, 2020). Third, we chose firms that had tions and additional ones as the interviews unfolded
survived the COVID-19 pandemic. While our atten- and insights emerged (Williams & Shepherd, 2016).
tion was not on firm survival, we expected firms that Each participant was invited to choose the language
had survived to exhibit resilience (Gölgeci & Kuiv- in which he/she preferred to be interviewed (Williams
alainen, 2020; Ramezani & Camarinha-Matos, 2020). & Shepherd, 2016), and all selected Greek.
Fourth, to explore the ways in which the psychologi- The interview guides for both sessions were devel-
cal resilience of the individual owner-manager developed based on the need to collect data framed within
ops over time, and how it contributes to the devel- existing conceptualizations (e.g. the trait and process
opment of firm-level resilience, it was important to dimensions of psychological and business resilience)
study stand-alone (privately held) businesses that (Timmermans & Tavory, 2012) and in line with previ-
were run by a sole founder or a successor (as general ous qualitative studies focussing on resilience during
manager/CEO) who owned the firm and controlled a specific crises or catastrophic events (e.g. Williams
its decision-making (Lichtenstein & Brush, 2001; & Shepherd, 2016). The interview guide for the first
Lozano, Martínez, & Pindado, 2016). We focussed session included various broad themes (McAdam,
solely on our sample firms’ owner-managers (Gho- Harrison & Leitch, 2019), including (1) general back-
bakhloo & Tang, 2013; Kevill et al., 2017) because ground information on the individual owner-manag-
of their pervasive influence (Gibson & Cassar, 2005; ers and a description of their duties within their busi-
Mc Cartan-Quinn & Carson, 2003) and of the fact nesses, (2) company information, (3) a description of
that our study sought explanations on the way these what had happened following the announcement of
actors’ psychological resilience links to firm resil- COVID-19 as a pandemic, (4) the business responses
ience. Following practices drawn from the literature and changes made due to the pandemic, (5) the busi-
(e.g. Grinevich, et al., 2019; Autio et al., 2011), we ness characteristics and abilities in dealing with the
searched for firms that met our criteria by using pub- pandemic at the business level, (6) the impact of the
licly available directories, such as those published by pandemic on the individual owner-manager (well-
local (Cypriot) industry and commerce associations, being, emotions and mindset), (7) the owner-man-
and firm websites. Our target list eventually included agers’ personal traits and response to the pandemic
the owner-managers of 485 small businesses. Of conditions, (8) the owner-managers’ response to the
these, 35 agreed to take part in the research. Table 1 pandemic from their leadership capacity, and (9)
provides a brief description of our sample. the impact of the owner-managers on the operation
Prior to finalizing the interview guides and ensure of their businesses during the pandemic. Following
that the interview questions were evocative and com- Harries, McEwen, and Wragg (2018) and Williams
prehensible by the respondents, we conducted pilot and Shepherd (2016), the interview protocol for the
interviews with three individual owner-managers of second session was structured in an effort to trigger
small businesses that were not included in our final the production of a narrative and included a general
sample. Based on this pilot test, we streamlined our question about how things had gone for individual
interview guides and rephrased some of the ques- owner-managers and their organizations following
tions (Hollensbe et al., 2008). Moreover, before the months that had passed since their first interviews,
starting the interview, we reassured the participants as well as specific questions about their experiences
of their full anonymity and of the confidentiality of from the ongoing pandemic, challenges encountered,
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Table.1 Profiles of participating businesses and interviewees

N. Company pseu- Owner- Industry/activ- Business Family busi- Size - # Year of # of Interview
donym manager ity location ness (FB)/non- employ- establish- inter- periods
pseudonym (region) family business ees ment views (2020)
(NF)i
1 ReMark Nikos Market Nicosia NF 5 2011 2 Apr, Oct

research
2 Arrow Con- Andreas Business con- Nicosia NF 7 2010 2 Apr, Oct
sultants sultancy
3 Bella Me Maria Beauty salon Pafos NF 6 2006 2 May, Nov
4 Excelsior Costas Research Limassol NF 23 2009 2 Apr, Oct
centre
5 e-Masters Petros Electronics Larnaca FB 7 2004 2 May, Nov
store
6 Gourmet AA Stathis Restaurant Limassol FB 6 1992 2 May, Nov
7 QualiTrade Anna Construction Limassol FB 12 1986 2 May, Nov
material
importer
8 Sweet Ice Stelios Ice cream Nicosia NF 7 2009 2 May, Dec
producers
9 X-Style Giorgos Hairdressing Limassol FB 4 1987 2 May, Nov
salon
10 Bean café Eleni Coffee shop Famagusta FB 5 2006 2 May, Dec
11 Physio Clinic Christos Physiotherapist Pafos FB 8 2007 2 May, Nov
12 TRC Audit Lakis Audit office Larnaca FB 11 2008 2 Apr, Oct
13 Blue bear Pavlos Digital market- Limassol NF 7 2011 2 May, Dec
ing company
14 Guru media Kyriakos Social media Larnaca NF 5 2010 2 Apr, Oct
company
15 Data Stars Xenios Software con- Limassol FB 13 2007 2 Apr, Oct
sulting and
development
16 Muscle Uni- Evgenia Gym Pafos NF 6 2009 2 Apr, Oct
verse
17 Futures Demetris Educational Larnaca FB 15 2004 2 May, Dec
programmes
18 Business Serve Chara Business Nicosia NF 12 2008 2 Apr, Oct
consultancy
and training
centre
19 Red Hawk Leonidas Software Limassol FB 35 1995 2 Apr, Oct
development
20 Tronics Fanos Software Limassol FB 18 2006 2 May, Nov
development
21 Beta Inc Demos Digital design Limassol NF 8 2010 2 May, Dec
and website
development
22 Blueberry Thanasis Real estate Pafos NF 16 2008 2 May, Nov
Estate
23 Rythmic Spiros Group of Nicosia NF 35 2009 2 Apr, Oct
restaurants
24 Square café Katerina Cafe Larnaca FB 14 1993 2 May, Nov
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Table.1 (continued)
N. Company pseu- Owner- Industry/activ- Business Family busi- Size - # Year of # of Interview
donym manager ity location ness (FB)/non- employ- establish- inter- periods
pseudonym (region) family business ees ment views (2020)
(NF)i
25 Sunblock Periklis Shading Nicosia FB 44 1977 2 May, Nov

systems
Production
and sales
26 Constructia Sokratis Construction Limassol NF 48 2010 2 May, Nov
and develop-
ment
27 Smart Kids Theodora Nursery school Pafos FB 13 1983 2 Apr, Oct
28 Bistro Chefs Antonia Cafe Nicosia FB 12 2003 2 May, Dec
29 Bar 99 Nakis Bar Limassol FB 20 2005 2 Apr, Oct
30 Medi-Aid Elpida Medical centre Nicosia NF 25 2007 2 May, Dec
31 Bright Acad- Kyriaki Primary and Pafos FB 46 1992 2 May, Dec
emy secondary
school
32 Vivento Nefeli Venue and Limassol FB 11 2008 2 May, Nov
catering for
special events
33 People First Alexandros Job recruiting Nicosia FB 10 2006 2 Apr, Oct
agency
34 Big Orange Zoe Fashion bou- Famagusta FB 9 1999 2 Apr, Oct
tique
35 Relax Iasonas Wellness and Limassol NF 37 2009 2 May, Nov
Spa
i
Family business is defined as a business owned and/or managed by members of the founding family, and there is an intent to transfer
or an actual generational movement of the business (Chua, Chrisman, & Sharma, 1999; Heck & Trent, 1999).
and changes made because of the pandemic, as well aimed at better comprehending the codes emerging in
as their assessments of their businesses’ current and the analysis process and the flexibility to gather data
future—post-pandemic—actions. more pertinent to any nascent concepts and emergent
Two of the authors were involved in conducting the and interesting leads and relationships.
interviews, which were held via video link (Grinevich
et al., 2019). Each interview was recorded and pro- 3.4 Data analysis
fessionally transcribed verbatim in Greek to ensure
its validity and reliability (Theodoraki et al., 2018; Our study was guided by the Gioia Methodology
Grinevich, et al., 2019). The interview transcripts (Gioia et al., 2013), which has been employed by
took up an average of 17 (session 1) and 30 (session past studies taking an abductive research approach
2) double-spaced pages each and over 1,600 pages (e.g. Christou, Hadjielias, & Farmaki, 2019; Glyp-
overall. The interview transcripts were then translated tis et al., 2021). Under an abductive logic, the data
to English using a common back-translation process analysis develops new theory through an iterative
(Harbi, Thursfield, & Bright, 2017). Following Hol- ‘back and forth’ process between the data and the
lensbe et al. (2008), the data collection and analysis literature (Dubois & Gadde, 2002). Drawing on best
were conducted at the same time—we analysed the practice, we performed the data analysis through
interviews conducted during session 1 before con- consensual coding (Goffin & Koners, 2011; Pan,
ducting the session 2 ones. This procedure gave us a Maclaurin, & Crotts, 2007) between two research
chance to recognize the need for additional questions team members following the three coding stages
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prescribed by the Gioia Methodology (Gioia et al., pandemic conditions (see Fig. 1 for the full list of
2013). During the first stage, the two research- first-order concepts or codes).
ers separately carried out an open coding process During the second stage, the codes in the master
aimed at capturing any emergent insights (Gof- list were grouped—based on similarities in terms
fin & Koners, 2011; Holton, 2007) while adhering of meanings and topics (Holton, 2007)—in order to
to the informant terms (Gioia et al., 2013). Dur- develop second-order categories (Gioia et al., 2013).
ing this stage, both authors separately analysed The researchers carried out this task separately,
each interview transcript and produced their own reducing the first-order concepts to a smaller num-
lists of codes (until saturation) in relation to vari- ber of categories (Corbin & Strauss, 2014). When
ous chunks of text (e.g. phrases, sentences, words, this task was completed, the two researchers met to
or paragraphs) (Corbin & Strauss, 2014). When discuss the categories they had produced and any dis-
this task was completed, the two researchers shared crepancies with the intention to reach an agreement
their lists of codes with the intention to discuss any (Goffin & Koners, 2011). The outcome was a mutu-
discrepancies and reach a consensus on a common ally agreed list of ‘second-order categories’, which
master coding list (Goffin & Koners, 2011; Pan are presented in Fig. 1. For instance, the first-order
et al., 2007). For instance, the emergent first-order concepts agreed upon by the coders featured the
concepts (or codes), which had been agreed by the owner-managers’ willingness to empathize with their
two coders during the first coding stage, involved employees and personalize their communication and
the individual owner-manager’s ‘negative emotions attention towards them in the midst of the pandemic.
and negative psychology’, ‘difficulties to cope’, and Such codes included a ‘higher sensitivity towards
‘emotional and psychological breakdown’, which employees’, ‘taking time to talk to employees’, ‘per-
had stemmed from their exposure to the COVID-19 sonalized attention’, and ‘efforts to help employees to
overcome any personal problems’; these were brought
1st Order Concepts 2nd Order Categories Aggregate Dimensions

Negative emotions and negative psychology (e.g. stress,
nervousness); difficulties to cope; emotional and psychological Well-being disruption from the pandemic
breakdown; disruption of personal harmony and well-being
Optimistic outlook; Confidence that problems can be solved; Personal

patiently monitor conditions; flexibility to solve personal Protective conditions: Endurance & thriving
disruptions resilience
Personal experiences feed reflection; Self-reflection on pandemic

conditions; Time to think; Ability to restore well-being disruptions Promotive conditions: reflection & bouncing
back
Higher sensitivity towards employees; Devote more time to talk to
employees; Personalized attention; Efforts to help employees to Personalized communication at work
overcome personal problems;
Alertness for entrepreneurial opportunities to renew the business;

monitoring the market for gaps; taking advantage of lockdowns to Alertness for new opportunities for the business
think new ideas to improve business
Leadership
Worries that employees may develop well-being problems as the resilience
pandemic progresses; worries about the future of the business; Alertness for future psycho-emotional problems
desire to monitor the workplace for any signs of psycho-emotional at work
problems within employees; thoughts how to anticipate future
Realization of stewardship role in the firm; realization of role

played in making decisions in the midst of the pandemic; Business stewardship
attachment to the business
Open discussions to resolve pandemic obstacles at work; Collective

decisions; Improvement of collective spirit at work; Workplace Harmony and Collectivism
Communication with employees sustains harmony
Monitoring the pandemic conditions; Swift implementation of Business

future projects; Flexibility to change structures and allow remote
work; Owner-manager’s alertness and swift decisions for firm Business Agility resilience
adaptation
Mobilization of resources from controlling family to the firm;
Owner-managers request resources from immediate family; Mobilization of family resources to firm
Stewardship enhances reliance on family for support
Fig. 1 Data structure
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together under a second-order category that we 4 Findings

labelled ‘personalized communication’ (see Fig. 1 for
the full list of the second-order categories and their Our study yielded evidence on the unprecedented
links to the first-order concepts). challenges to owner-managers and their businesses
While reaching a consensus on the ‘second-order brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings
categories’ during the second analytical stage, the two illustrate the influences found at the person-role-
authors jointly engaged in a process whereby the sec- organization nexus, shedding light on the ways in
ond-order categories were compared with the extant which psychological resilience—at the individual
literature on resilience and other relevant topics. This owner-manager level of analysis—fosters the resil-
was done to determine which categories represented ience of small businesses within the context of the
any existing concepts and which novel ones (Gioia COVID-19 pandemic. The sections that follow
et al., 2013; Sillince et al., 2012). During this pro- explain how, through their personal and business
cess, any emergent categories that reflected concepts role capacities, individual owner-managers embark
that already existed in the literature were adjusted to on actions which facilitate the resilience of small
align their labels with the terms used in the literature. businesses.
For instance, when grouping the first-order concepts
that related to an owner-manager’s optimistic out- 4.1 The owner‑managers’ personal resilience in the
look, confidence, and flexibility in solving personal midst of the pandemic
disruption, the two coders agreed that these jointly
described the ‘protective’ dimension of psychologi- The analysis highlighted that COVID-19 was affect-
cal resilience (Fletcher & Sarkar, 2013) and there- ing the personal lives and well-being of many small
fore determined to label this category accordingly. business owner-managers. One respondent indicated
This back-and-forth process between the data and how the pandemic conditions and restrictions were
the literature enabled the coders to discuss and better influencing her personal life and personal routines:
understand the connections and relationships between ‘Psychologically, I had an issue during the first lock-
emergent categories. This process was important as it down; I had to limit my personal activities, such as
enabled the distillation of the second-order categories going out at night jogging or meeting with friends.’
into fewer aggregated dimensions during the third [Nefeli, Vivento, Nov 2020].
stage of analysis (Gioia et al., 2013). For instance, Consequently, a facet of personal resilience
the two coders agreed that the second-order themes appears to be driven by the ability of an owner-man-
‘personalized communication’, ‘alertness’, ‘steward- ager to bounce back, restoring the personal well-
ship’, and ‘person-role reflection’ referred to essen- being disrupted by the pandemic. As one participant
tial aspects of the owner-managers’ ability to act as highlighted, while COVID-19 had initially disrupted
leaders in the workplace and support their personnel his personal life, he had managed to bounce back as
and organizations in response to the pandemic. Con- an individual and restore his well-being: ‘When I
sequently, they grouped these leadership qualities started to really realize where this situation was head-
under a single aggregated dimension they labelled ing, I was knocked over. I needed some time to weigh
‘leadership resilience’ (see Fig. 1 for the full list of up the situation, to get used to the change. However,
aggregate dimensions and their links to second-order I managed to get over it and regain my strength.’
categories). [Nakis, Bar 99, Oct 2020].
Our intention was to create a conceptual diagram Nevertheless, some owner-managers affirmed that
capable of depicting the emergent relationships their personal conditions had remained largely unal-
between the existing and nascent concepts (Gioia tered or that they had even gained new strength and
et al., 2013) and suited to explain the ways in which purpose in the midst of the pandemic. This leads to a
the owner-managers’ psychological resilience had second facet of personal resilience in the form of the
been influencing their small firms’ resilience in the ability to endure or even thrive under negative pan-
context of the COVID-19 pandemic. demic conditions. A participant stated:
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I am an optimist and, certainly, being optimis- personal care salons, which had been forced to sus-
tic that things will improve helps you deal bet- pend their operations during the first (23 March to
ter with any negative situations such as those 21 May 2020) and second regional (Limassol and
that COVID has brought to us. It gives me more Paphos) (12 to 30 November 2020) and national (30
endurance to deal with problems. [Andreas, November 2020 to 31 January 2021) lockdowns. The
Arrow Consultants, Oct 2020] findings suggest that the suspensions of operations
that had affected certain companies had exerted great
Our findings suggest that each facet of personal
pressure on owner-managers, subjecting a significant
resilience (i.e. bouncing back or endure) draws on a
number of them to personal well-being disruption,
diverse path and is shaped by different conditions. We
either emotional or psychological. As one respond-
refer to these two different facets as type 1 and type
ent who ran a hairdressing salon explained, the tem-
2 personal resilience, respectively. For each type, we
porary closure of his business was a factor that had
then distinguish between promotive and protective
diminished his personal well-being: ‘I am very active.
conditions (Fletcher & Sarkar, 2013). Promotive con-
I cannot stay grounded at home. I go out and do
ditions are those individual factors that had shaped
things. The pandemic has influenced my daily life [
an owner-manager’s ability to bounce back (Fletcher
…] Not being able to be at work made things even
& Sarkar, 2013) and restore any personal well-being
worse for me.’ [Giorgos, X-Style, May 2020].
disrupted by the pandemic. A core promotive condi-
Concerning the owner-managers endowed with
tion emerging from our findings is an owner-man-
type 1 personal resilience, our findings suggest that
ager’s ability to self-reflect. Protective factors are
personal reflection had become an essential mecha-
those that had enabled an owner-manager to endure
nism in the restoration of these individuals’ personal
or even thrive in the midst of the pandemic (Fletcher
well-being. Specifically, their ability to bounce back
& Sarkar, 2013). The protective factors that emerged
from the disruption caused by the pandemic was
in our findings include an owner-manager’s optimism,
rooted in a self-reflective process that had enabled
readiness, and forward-looking mentality. Table 2
them to draw on the situation and past life events and
illustrates the type of personal resilience characteriz-
experiences to overcome their personal well-being
ing each research participant; in particular, 19 of our
disruption.
participant owner-managers indicated an ability to
bounce back from personal disruption (type 1), while I did what I am accustomed to doing. I acted
16 mentioned that they had remained largely posi- patiently, I picked up my pieces from this situ-
tive and forward-looking, which had kept them going ation [the COVID-19 pandemic], which defi-
despite the negative environmental conditions (type nitely influenced me negatively. I wished to put
2). the puzzle back together to see a clear picture
Type 1 personal resilience was related to those which would take me to the next phase of my
sample owner-managers that had experienced disrup- life, so I could move on. In such situations, it
tion to their well-being as a result of the pandemic. helps me to reflect on my past life-changing
One highlighted that the pandemic had increased her experiences of death and suffering. [Theodora,
levels of stress and sadness and had influenced her Smart Kids, Oct 2020]
psychologically as an individual: ‘When the lock-
Type 2 personal resilience had pertained to those
down measures were put in effect, I had a major cri-
owner-managers who had remained optimistic and
sis. I was stressed, crying, I was feeling very nerv-
forward-looking during the pandemic. Two of them
ous. I could not breathe. It really brought me down.’
explained that they had maintained an optimistic
[Maria, Bella Me, Nov 2020].
outlook and self-efficacy, which had helped them to
As Table 2 illustrates, type 1 personal resilience
flexibly and swiftly adapt to the pandemic conditions,
had pertained largely to the owner-managers of those
and thus to endure:
enterprises that had been forced to remain closed
for significant lengths of time during the pandemic; I got used to it [the pandemic]. I see myself
for instance, firms providing close contact services as an optimist and a problem solver. I adapted
such as hairdressing salons, wellness and spas, and quickly. [Demetris, Futures, May 2020]
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Table.2 Resilient conditions exhibited by owner-managers

Operational status Owner-manager Personal resilience Role resilience
during COVID-19 (business)
Type 1: Promotive Type 2: Protec- Communi- Alertness Stewardship
conditions; bounc- tive conditions; cation
ing back ability endurance/thriv-
ing ability
Businesses remain- Maria (Bella Me) √ √

ing closed for Stathis (Gourmet AA)* √ √ √
significant lengths
Giorgos (X-Style)* √ √
of time during the
pandemic Eleni (Bean café)* √ √
Evgenia (Muscle √ √
Universe)
Spiros (Rythmic) √ √
Katerina (Square café)* √ √
Theodora (Smart Kids)* √ √ √
Antonia (Bistro Chefs)* √ √
Nakis (Bar 99)* √ √
Kyriaki (Bright Acad- √ √ √
emy)*
Nefeli (Vivento)* √ √
Zoe (Big Orange)* √ √ √
Iasonas (Relax) √ √
Businesses operat- Andreas (Arrow √ √

ing with restric- Consultants)
tions during the Nikos (ReMark) √ √
pandemic
Costas (Excelsior) √ √
Petros (e-Masters)* √ √ √
Stelios (Sweet Ice) √ √
Lakis (TRC Audit)* √ √ √
Pavlos (Blue Bear) √ √
Kyriakos (Guru media) √ √
Anna (QualiTrade)* √ √
Xenios (Data Stars)* √ √
Demetris (Futures)* √ √ √
Christos (Physio Clinic)* √ √
Chara (Business Serve) √ √ √
Leonidas (Red Hawk)* √ √
Fanos (Tronics)* √ √ √
Demos (Beta Inc) √ √
Thanasis (Blueberry Estate) √ √ √
Periklis (Sunblock)* √ √
Sokratis (Constructia) √ √
Elpida (Medi-Aid) √ √
Alexandros (People First)* √ √ √
√Owner-manager highlighting action/ability/state

*
Family Businesses
(Adapted from Scheidgen, 2021, p. 64)
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I am the kind of person that doesn’t see the Having the opportunity to work from home
glass half empty or half full, but almost full. was healthy for me. While working, I could
So, with this attitude, the A to Z is to have your also spend more time with my wife and kids. It
patience and your optimism so you can keep a helped me to shape a healthier lifestyle and bal-
clear mind to see how things unfold and to act ance between work and family. I intend to keep
when needed. I am not a person that is panicked it this way. [Fanos, Tronics, Nov 2020]
easily and loses hope. [Leonidas, Red Hawk,
Our findings build on previous work conducted on
Apr 2020]
the protective-promotive nexus of individual resil-
Another form of endurance emerged through the ience (Fletcher & Sarkar, 2013). We identified how
readiness of certain owner-managers to deal with the certain owner-managers’ protective traits—such as
changing circumstances. For instance, there were par- confidence, self-efficacy, and positive emotions (Gu
ticipants, accustomed to work frequently from home, & Day, 2007; Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004)—had
who recalled that the pandemic measures had not enabled them to endure or even evolve under adverse
affected them to any significant degree: ‘Ok, I was conditions. Furthermore, our findings highlight the
accustomed working from home before the pandemic. role played by promotive conditions such as self-
So, the lockdown did not affect me that much.’ reflection in enabling resilient individuals to bounce
[Fanos, Tronics, Nov 2020]. back from hardships (Crane et al., 2020; Fletcher &
As Table 2 illustrates, type 2 had largely been Sarkar, 2013), and specifically the disruption to indi-
related to owner-managers from those firms that had vidual well-being linked to the COVID-19 pandemic
remained partially operational (with certain restric- (Brand, Timme, & Nosrat, 2020). Our study is nev-
tions) or that had been able to continue working from ertheless the first to provide research on owner-man-
home throughout the pandemic (e.g. audit offices, agers within small businesses with a resilience trait
consultancy firms, IT companies, consultants). This component that had hitherto been missing from the
indicates that the avoidance of complete closure may small business literature. At the same time, while our
have played a significant role in the positive mind- findings echo the reflective component of individual
sets of these owner-managers. As one respondent resilience (Flach, 1988; Moenkemeyer, Hoegl, &
explained, the fact that his business had remained Weiss, 2012), they shed more light on the self-reflec-
operational during the pandemic, albeit with restric- tion rooted in this process that enables individual
tions, had been a reason to remain generally optimis- owner-managers to bounce-back from disruptive life
tic: ‘Personally, it helped me that I could keep going events.
to work or at least doing work from home. It kept my
thoughts away from the reality of the pandemic, and 4.2 Leadership resilience driven by personal
generally helped me to remain positive.’ [Sokratis, resilience
Constructia, Nov 2020].
For some of these type 2 owner-managers, the The analysis highlights that the COVID-19 pandemic
pandemic had not been a matter of enduring but an had affected the (leadership) role of our participating
opportunity to improve and develop at the personal owner-managers in their respective businesses. Par-
level. One interviewee explained that the pandemic ticularly, our findings suggest that the pandemic had
had helped him to get to become better acquainted led to changes or adjustments in our sample owner-
with digital technology, while another highlighted managers’ leadership capacity in three areas: (a) com-
that the circumstances had given him the opportunity munication, (b) alertness, and (c) stewardship. Our
to strike a better balance between work and family interviewees highlighted that such changes had made
life: them more resilient as leaders, and consequently
more able to exercise leadership in the midst of the
Let’s look at the bright side of the pandemic.
pandemic. Table 2 illustrates the areas of leader-
It pushed us to use technologies and learn new
ship in which each research participant indicated an
things we otherwise would not. I got to know
adjustment/improvement. As Table 2 shows, 17 of our
Zoom! [smiling] [Pavlos, Blue Bear, Dec 2020]
interviewed owner-managers indicated an adjustment
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13
in the way they communicated with their employees, psychological, and other personal issues caused by
16 mentioned that they had become more alerted to the pandemic. One respondent exemplified this:
opportunities and risks, while 13 had experienced
I realized that, with every person, I have to com-
an enhancement in their stewardship behaviours
municate differently. This is new for me, but
towards their firms. As portrayed in this table, cer-
important. It is different for a person working
tain research participants highlighted changes in more
from an apartment with two children, different
than one leadership areas (for instance, a combina-
for a person who is working from home alone
tion of adjustments in relation to communication and
and feels lonely. Every person is facing different
alertness). As indicated in Table 2, the vast majority
issues during the COVID pandemic. So, I have
of the owner-managers who highlighted adjustments
noticed that it works through communication.
in relation to their stewardship towards the firm were
[Costas, Excelsior, Oct 2020]
primarily from family businesses.
Our findings suggest that, in the context of the Our findings highlight that the ability to engage as
COVID-19 pandemic, an owner-manager’s personal a leader in close, personalized communication with
resilience becomes an antecedent of leadership resil- employees had been shaped by the personal resil-
ience. In other words, the ability of owner-managers ience of the individual owner-managers in the midst
to bounce back and restore their personal well-being of the pandemic. Yet, the way and logic whereby each
or their enduring ability to withstand any disruption owner-manager facilitated personalized communi-
to it was underpinning the adjustments or changes cation in the workplace depended on her/his type of
made to their leadership capacity. Table 3 indicates personal resilience. As illustrated in Table 3, type 1
the way in which each type of personal resilience individuals who had bounced back from well-being
(types 1 and 2) underpins leadership role resilience disruption had drawn on ‘empathy’ and ‘sensitivity’
in the areas of communication, alertness, and stew- to engage in one-to-one communication with their
ardship. Concerning ‘communication’, our sample employees in order to understand their problems and
owner-managers acknowledged that the pandemic had concerns and had acted accordingly to support them.
sensitised them to the human aspect in the workplace, Consequently, while type 1 owner-managers had
causing them to invest more in communicating with been changing the way they communicated with their
employees. For many of our research participants, employees in the workplace, this transformation had
individualized communication had become a new been largely emotion-driven. One respondent exem-
norm, as they believed that their employees deserved plified this:
personalized attention in order to overcome the social,
Table.3 Personal-role resilience nexus

Personal resilience Role resilience
Personalized communication Alertness Stewardship
Type 1: Promo- Owner-managers become more Empathy and sensitivity incorpo- Negative experience and reflection
tive conditions; empathetic and sensitive to the rated into an alertness for future on the pandemic, makes owner-
bouncing back individual needs and problems of psycho-emotional problems at managers more sensitive towards
ability each employee, understand better work. the firm, having a pressure to act
the position of employees. as stewards to ‘serve and protect’
it during harsh conditions.
Type 2: Protec- Infusing people in the workplace Confidence that the negative Confidence in leading the firm, as a
tive conditions; with optimism and confidence. pandemic conditions open up new proper steward, in the midst of the
endurance/thriv- Owner-managers present them- opportunities and possibilities for pandemic.
ing ability selves as a ‘success’ (behavioural) the firm.
case to help employees achieve An optimistic leader faces less
balance. ambiguity and worries and can
be more alerted for firm-specific
opportunities.
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Experiencing problems myself helped me to their employees could develop psychological or well-
understand that there are many other people like being problems as the business progressed and that
me, my own people in the business, who experi- they thus needed to be in a position to swiftly spot,
ence similar issues and need to be supported. It control, and reduce any such problems. One respond-
was an emotional reaction; I felt their pain and ent mentioned:
I wanted to talk with each one of them to hear
I am mostly worried about any future serious
what they were going through and how I could
psychological problems for the people at work.
help. [Theodora, Smart Kids, Oct 2020].
I am monitoring it. I haven’t noticed anyone
On the other hand, type 2 individuals who had being especially sad or depressed but, should
endured or thrived in the midst of the pandemic dis- this situation lasts much longer, it will create
ruption had drawn on ‘optimism’ and ‘confidence’ problems for the psychological health of my
to boost the spirit of their employees in their one-to- employees. [Spiros, Rythmic, Oct 2020]
one interactions and communication with them (see
Another area of increased leadership alertness was
Table 3). Our findings highlight that some owner-
related to entrepreneurial aspects. Our findings sug-
managers underpinned by type 2 personal resilience
gest an increased alertness of our sample owner-man-
had used their own ‘success case’ of enduring the
agers in regard to any opportunities that could help
pandemic to help their employees to overcome any
the firm to renew, expand, or minimize costs during
personal and workplace struggles linked to it. Conse-
the pandemic:
quently, the type 2 owner-managers had adjusted their
communication by drawing upon their traits linked to This crisis has caused me to monitor the mar-
confidence and endurance: ket, the competition, and any new technologies
more carefully in order to make any changes
I believe that certain attitudes that one has help
that could help my business to take advantage
during adverse conditions such as the pandemic.
of some of these conditions. For example, in the
Personally, I dealt with the pandemic with lots of
past, I hadn’t considered online sales. [Stathis,
confidence, which was very effective in dealing
Gourmet AA, Nov 2020]
with my people at work [...] I dealt with extreme
communication with them. ‘How are you?’, Our findings highlight that the nature of the adjust-
‘How is it going?’, ‘What is worrying you?’ ments made as a consequence of the alertness aspect
We can discuss it and re-discuss it with extreme of leadership had depended on each owner-manager’s
communication. [Xenios, Data Stars, Oct 2020] personal resilience type. As illustrated in Table 3,
type 1 individuals (promotive; bouncing back) had
When my employees see that I am positive
drawn on ‘empathy’ and ‘sensitivity’ to become
and this does not get me down, and we discuss
more alerted of any future psychological, emotional,
things together, I transfer this positive spirit to
or well-being disruption affecting their employees in
them. Then, they will see me as an example
the workplace. Consequently, the enhanced alertness
and they will be influenced positively as well.
of our sample type 1 owner-managers had been more
[Nikos, ReMark, Oct 2020]
emotion-driven. One interviewee exemplified this:
Alertness was another area in which our sample
In facing the difficulties of the pandemic and get-
owner-managers had experienced adjustments due to
ting through them, it also became clear to me that
the pandemic. Our findings suggest that, as a result of
this was something important that I need to deal
the pandemic, our participating owner-managers had
with in the workplace [...] Although it may not be
become more alerted of two aspects: (a) any future
apparent now, should this pandemic continue, it
psycho-emotional issues in the workplace and (b) any
could put additional pressure on my employees. I
entrepreneurial opportunities to renew or expand their
need to be there for them, but adequately prepare
firms under changing conditions. Amongst the group
to deal with it. [Maria, Bella Me, Nov 2020]
that highlighted alertness as an area of adjustment
(see Table 2), some owner-managers indicated that, On the other hand, our sample type 2 owner-man-
as a result of the pandemic, they were worrying that agers (protective; enduring), who were confident and
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optimistic, acknowledged that the pandemic could and to re-establish my bonds with the business. I
provide opportunities for their businesses and had made a lot of sacrifices to grow this firm, and it
therefore become more alerted of any entrepreneurial became clear that I needed to put more hours and
opportunities for firm growth or renewal. Therefore, effort to deal with the difficulties, with the lock-
our type 2 owner-managers exhibited an enhanced downs, with the reduced customers, with all the
alertness, which is linked to their traits of confidence restrictions. [Nefeli, Vivento, Nov 2020]
and tolerance of ambiguity. One of them highlighted:
Our sample type 2 owner-managers (protective;
This is my approach; I like this kind of chal- enduring), on the other hand, felt more confident in
lenges [the COVID-19 pandemic]. Despite how regard to driving their firms through the pandemic.
strange it may sound, I saw the COVID pan- Given the adverse conditions caused by the pandemic
demic as an opportunity to do the things we and their own personal endurance, they sensed that they
were discussing in relation to the business. [Leo- could absorb the risks and identify solutions to help
nidas, Red Hawk, Apr 2020] their business through enhanced stewardship. Conse-
quently, the stewardship attitudes re-shaped by our sam-
Increased stewardship of the business is a third
ple type 2 owner-managers were more trait-driven (e.g.
area in which the research participants had experi-
confidence, optimism). One such respondent indicated:
enced changes as part of their leadership in the firm.
Our findings illustrate that COVID-19 pandemic had This situation [the pandemic] made me realize
made certain owner-managers think more about their that the business depends on me and what my
relationship with and responsibility towards their actual role towards this business is [...] I am a
respective firms and strengthen their stewardship to strong person, and the fact that this situation did
help them under such adverse environmental condi- not influence me negatively helped in focussing
tions. One of the interviewees mentioned: on the business with a clear mind. [Alexandros,
People First, Oct 2020]
My thinking, my perceptions have changed due
to the pandemic. I have become more aware of While previous work had largely treated leader-
the responsibility that I have towards my business ship resilience as a metaphor (Gray, 2017), our study
and that I have to act in good faith towards it. So, is the first to address the specific resilient competen-
any decisions I make from this point onwards are cies of leadership (i.e. personalized communication,
definitely going to be influenced by this thinking. alertness, and stewardship) and the ways in which they
[Lakis, TRC Audit, Oct 2020] are used by owner-managers to address any disruption
in the workplace. Further, our findings shed light on
Our findings illustrate how the enhanced steward-
the relevance of the owner-managers’ personal resil-
ship exhibited by our sample owner-managers as a
ience in the practice of leadership in the midst of the
result of the pandemic was underpinned differently
COVID-19 pandemic. While leadership resilience has
by the two personal resilience types. As illustrated
been viewed from an individual or psychological angle
in Table 3, type 1 individuals (promotive; bouncing
(Gray, 2017; Smith, 2015), the extant literature does
back) had drawn upon the ‘empathy’ and ‘sensitiv-
not distinguish between the personal and (workplace)
ity’ they had developed as a consequence of their
role capacities of the individual in examining resil-
own negative experiences and reflective practices
ience. Additionally, our findings provide insights into
linked to the pandemic and felt the pressure to act
the path dependence of the owner-managers’ leader-
better as stewards to ‘serve and protect’ their firm.
ship resilience, linking it to their personal resilience.
Consequently, the stewardship attitudes re-shaped
by our sample type 1 owner-managers were more
emotion-driven. One of them exemplified this:
4.3 From leadership resilience to business resilience
When the business was closed for a period due to
the lockdown measures, I had lots of time to think. Our findings highlight outcomes at the business level
This period was important because it helped me to while linking leadership (role) resilience with busi-
re-discover myself, to overcome my own worries, ness resilience. Our research participants articulated
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that, as a result of changing the practice of their lead- our sample owner-managers had been able to make
ership, they had noticed an adaptation of their busi- them feel safer and less threatened at work, which
nesses to the pandemic conditions. also strengthened harmony in the workplace. One
interviewee highlighted:
It was important for me to realize that I needed
to act to deal with the effects of the pandemic. I talked a lot with all my employees to ensure
When people see that their boss is positive and that they wouldn’t be psychologically affected.
does not let things get him down, they will be This helped to minimize the negative emotions
influenced positively, and this will not disrupt and pressures from the external environment
our everyday activities. [Sokratis, Constructia, and to keep people calm in the business. [Iaso-
May 2020] nas, Relax, May 2020].
Our findings link the COVID-19 pandemic with Moreover, many of our sample owner-managers
business changes or developments in three core emphasized that the pandemic had caused their busi-
areas: (a) workplace harmony and collectivism, (b) nesses to deal with the pressure linked to having to
business agility, and (c) resource mobilization for make changes to cope with the pandemic. Other
the firm. Our findings suggest that such changes interviewees mentioned that the pandemic had given
had been essential in enhancing business resilience them the opportunity to realize some ideas that they
and thus equipping the business with the ability had had in mind to implement in the future. Alto-
to bounce back or thrive in the midst of the nega- gether, our findings suggest that, in times of crisis,
tive effects caused by the pandemic. Each area of businesses may become more agile and thus able to
business resilience was identified as being under- respond faster to market opportunities, problems, or
pinned by one or more leadership resilience capa- trends.
bilities (i.e. communication, alertness, or steward-
Some things are just excuses. When we say that
ship). Table 4 summarizes the findings at the nexus
the timing is not good, it needs a lot of time,
between leadership and business resilience.
and so on. You can do a lot of things that you
Concerning ‘harmony and collectivism’, our sam-
have in your mind much earlier. This is what
ple owner-managers emphasized the significance
this crisis has taught us. It has forced our busi-
of these outcomes during the pandemic, as they had
ness to do things to survive, it has helped us to
helped to minimize any disruption in the functioning
go online much faster than we ever thought we
of the business. One respondent emphasized:
would. [Kyriaki, Bright Academy, May 2020]
It [the pandemic] has brought us closer together.
We had this idea to develop a department for
It has enabled us to discuss openly and to agree
adult education, but we did not have the time to
upon certain rules suited to keep our working
pursue it. The pandemic has been useful because
schedule undisrupted and harmony in the busi-
it has given us the time to think more about this
ness. Certainly, a positive aspect of this situa-
project and to make the decision to implement it.
tion has been that it has helped to improve the
[Chara, Business Serve, Oct 2020]
collective spirit in the business. [Kyriakos,
Guru Media, Oct 2020] Concerning agility, some participants also empha-
sized the flexibility of the business in terms of allow-
Our findings suggest that the (leadership) role of
ing people to work from home, acknowledging that
our sample owner-managers had been critical in keep-
certain people had good reason to not physically be in
ing people calm in the workplace and in fostering col-
the workplace. Consequently, a second facet of agility
lectivism at work during that strenuous and depress-
that was mentioned was associated with a business’s
ing period. Specifically, harmony and collectivism
ability to facilitate any necessary changes in the struc-
outcomes appeared to stem from the personalized
tures and routines of work: ‘Some people have needs
communication that the owner-managers had begun
and have to stay home; our business has become more
to offer to their employees in response to the pan-
flexible to cater for this request.’ [Thanasis, Blueberry
demic. Our findings highlight that, by communicating
Estate, May 2020].
more closely and individually with their employees,
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Table.4 Role-business resilience nexus
Role resilience Business resilience
Workplace harmony and collectivism Business agility Mobilization of family resources
Personalized Enhanced personal/personalized com- Owner-manager’s close interaction and –

communica- munication with employees: enhances communication with each employee
tion collectivism, makes employees feel safer makes the firm flexible to accommodate
and less threatened; sustains/reinforces diverse requests in terms of working
harmony. modes and schedules.
Alertness: For new opportunities – Owner-manager alertness for new entrepre- –
neurial opportunities during the pan-
demic, makes the firm more able to sense
and seize opportunities and facilitate
business renewal.
For potential psycho- – Owner-manager’s one-to-one communi- –
emotional problems cation with employees make the firm
flexible to accommodate diverse requests
in terms of working modes and sched-
ules with the logic of avoiding potential
employee well-being related problems.
Contextualizing small business resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from small…
Stewardship – – Stewardship enhances the reliance on family

during the pandemic; owner-manager seeks
resources from family to fill resource gaps
caused by the pandemic; family responds
with relevant support.
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1369
Our findings illustrate that the increased agil- them to perform under pressure. On the other
ity to facilitate business renewal had stemmed from hand, you see some that say ‘Let’s go for it’.
our sample owner-managers’ increased alertness for Because I respect their concerns, and I want
firm-specific opportunities, thus linking leadership to see them all return back to work safe and
resilience with business resilience. By becoming happy very soon, I have introduced a blended
more alerted to changes in the business environment working structure suited to also accommodate
for potential threads or opportunities, our sample the requests of people who wish to work from
owner-managers had become more adept to mak- home. [Demos, Beta Inc., Dec 2020]
ing quick business decisions suited to adapt to such
A third business outcome concerns the mobiliza-
changes, thus reinforcing agility—and its associated
tion of family resources, which is again connected
outcomes—at the business level.
to the changes occurring at the leadership level. Our
I was monitoring the situation in great detail findings illustrate that this outcome is associated with
from the start. The market, what the competi- the resilient practices of owner-managers of family
tion was doing, the news, the developments. businesses (see also Table 1), whose role is important
Things progressed pretty fast, but I had to make in facilitating the mobilization of resources from the
swift decisions such as making our training (controlling) family to the business. Our research par-
academy completely virtual. We also assessed ticipants referred to external resources such as funds,
the market and realized an opportunity, and we free labour, and ideas being transferred from the fam-
are now entering the online food delivery mar- ily to the business in the midst of the pandemic. Our
ket. [Demetris, Futures, Dec 2020] participants justified such transfers as essential to fill
any resource gaps and solve any problems caused by
At the same time, the agility suited to change
the pandemic, such us financial injections aimed at
work structures and routines appeared to stem from
sustaining the cash flow and operations, free labour to
our sample owner-managers’ increased personalized
minimize costs, and ideas for improving or changing
communication at work and alertness for potential
practices in order to cope with the new conditions.
future psycho-emotional issues at work. Our find-
ings illustrate that those owner-managers who had We are very connected as a family. My father,
been keen to engage in close conversations with their who has retired, has been very stressed with this
employees—while remaining vigilant to foresee any situation. He has helped us a lot by being in the
future well-being related issues that could affect shop every day since the very first day of the
them—would be swift in changing working struc- pandemic. He has also supported us financially,
tures, schedules, or routines. As highlighted by one especially during the first lockdown, when our
respondent, acknowledging (through close discus- sales between March and May hit bottom. [Pet-
sions) the obstacles faced by his employees during ros, e-Masters, Nov 2020]
the pandemic—and to avoid any additional negative
Our findings provide links between the increased
effects on their well-being—he had taken the initia-
stewardship levels of our sample owner-managers and
tive to create a blended working structure suited to
the external resource contributions made by the con-
accommodate his employees’ needs for either physi-
trolling families to their businesses. Our research par-
cal or virtual work:
ticipants explained that, due to being overwhelmed by
The whole issue with COVID made me realise their responsibilities towards their businesses, they
that we all are people, and that everyone thinks had asked for the support of their immediate family
and behaves differently under different circum- circles. This had been done in order to gain access to
stances. Under such adverse conditions, I was any resources essential to keep the businesses going.
able to become more familiar with the charac- A shift in the leadership resilience associated with
ter, needs, and concerns of each of my employ- enhanced stewardship had thus been crucial to the
ees. Some were afraid to leave the house; there- transfer of family resources to the firms:
fore, it would not have been good for them if
During difficult times like these, the first people
I had put them on the frontline and expected
who come to your mind is your close family mem-
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bers. Here, this business is feeding four families. leadership and organizational resilience in small busi-
It also becomes a family concern. My husband nesses, which is essential in understanding the micro-
and my parents may not be involved in the busi- foundations of organizational resilience.
ness, but they wish to provide ideas and solutions. The section that follows discusses the findings in
The more I feel the responsibility to preserve the relation to the existing literature and highlights the
business, which was handed down to us by our key contributions to theory and literature stemming
parents, the more I wish to rely on my family for from our work.
support. [Anna, QualiTrade, May 2020]
Our findings build on previous work on small business
5 Discussion
resilience (Ibora et al., 2019; Torres, Marshall, & Sydnor,
2019) offering a contextualized understanding within
Our study provides evidence of the ways in which
the COVID-19 pandemic. While entrepreneurial agility
psychological resilience—at the individual owner-
(Chakravarty et al., 2013) and the mobilization of family
manager level of analysis—facilitates small busi-
social capital (Salvato & Melin, 2008) had been identi-
ness resilience within the context of the COVID-19
fied as playing important roles during disruptive events,
pandemic. We reveal a sequential process centred
they had not been specifically researched for their merits
on owner-managers and on their abilities to build-up
in understanding business resilience. Further, workplace
or strengthen any personal and leadership resilient
harmony and collectivism had hitherto been overlooked
capacities, which appear to be prerequisites for the
in research on business resilience. Overall, our findings
establishment of resilient actions at the level of the
offer a novel understanding of the ways in which specific
small business. Fig. 2 depicts our findings.
business resilient actions are linked to specific resilience
In our study, ‘personal resilience’ is conceptu-
practices at the leadership level. For instance, how the
alized as the owner-managers’ ability to achieve a
reinforced leadership stewardship of the owner-manag-
personal balance under adverse external conditions.
ers of small family firms in the midst of the pandemic is
Our findings extend the limited work on psycho-
facilitating the transfer of resources from the controlling
logical resilience within small businesses (Chadwick
family to the firm in order to fill any business resource
& Raver, 2020); it does so by shedding light on the
gaps. Despite building on the path dependency of organi-
ways in which owner-managers respond to complex
zational resilience (Gittell et al., 2006; Ortiz-de-Mando-
or adverse conditions to achieve, first and foremost,
jana & Bansal, 2016), our findings offer a novel thematic
a balance in their personal lives. To the best of our
or contextualized understanding of the interplay between
knowledge, ours is the first study to examine the
PERSON ROLE ORGANIZATION
PERSONAL RESILIENCE LEADERSHIP RESILIENCE BUSINESS RESILIENCE
Personalized Workplace Harmony &

Psycho- Personal
Type 1
Self-
Balance (inner Communica Collec sm
emo onal Reflec on
overwhelm & work-life)
Alertness Business agility
Op mis c Personal
Type 2
outlook and Balance (inner

confidence & work-life)
Stewardship Mobiliza on of family resources
Fig. 2 Small business resilience at the person-role-organization nexus
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psychological resilience build-up of individual owner- actions. Our findings highlight that each identified
managers. Our findings distinguish between two types type of personal resilience exerts a different influence
of personal resiliencies, depending on the dominance on leadership resilience in the areas of communica-
of promotive or protective conditions. Type 1 pertains tion, alertness, and stewardship. For instance, type 1
to those owner-managers who have drawn on promo- owner-managers draw on ‘empathy’ and ‘sensitivity’
tive conditions to reflect on their accumulated expe- to engage in one-to-one communication with their
riences and past life events to bounce back from the employees in order to understand their problems and
psycho-emotional distress caused by the pandemic. concerns; conversely, type 2 owner-managers draw on
Conversely, type 2 includes those who have remained ‘optimism’ and ‘confidence’ to boost their employ-
largely optimistic and forward-looking during the ees’ spirits.
pandemic and have thus avoided any significant dis- In terms of business outcomes, our work illustrates
ruption to their personal balance. that small businesses embark on pandemic-induced
In our study, ‘leadership resilience’ is linked to actions that are essential for their survival. These
personal resilience. We conceptualized it as a role- actions, which enhance ‘small business resilience’
specific feature linked to the leadership role of the under such extraordinary conditions, fall within three
owner-manager. Our findings suggest that leadership practical streams: ‘workplace harmony and collec-
resilience stems from an owner-manager’s ability to tivism’, ‘business agility’, and ‘mobilization of fam-
respond to the pandemic conditions, first and fore- ily resources’. For each of these, our study provides
most, at the personal level, where an inner and work- linkages between the owner-managers’ (i.e. leader-
life balance is deemed essential. Previous work has ship) resilience and that of their respective firms.
mainly examined leadership resilience from a practi- Harmony comes as an enhancement and is essential
cal perspective (Gray, 2017; Smith, 2015), treating it during the pandemic because it hinders stressors from
mostly as a metaphor suited to emphasize the robust penetrating into the physical or virtual workplace and
psychological qualities that leaders should maintain from negatively influencing the employees. Although
at the workplace to be able to effectively practice workplace harmony has been linked to employee
their role (Gray, 2017). Yet, we know little about the quality of life and productivity in the workplace
build-up or components of this type of resilience in (Chen et al., 2016), it has not hitherto been examined
an organizational context—specifically that of the as a resilient action or as a component of a firm’s
small firm, where the leader-figure takes on the form resilient capacity build-up. In our study, collectivism
of a dominant owner-manager (Gibson & Cassar, takes on the form of those jointly agreed practices and
2005; Mc Cartan-Quinn & Carson, 2003). Our study actions that enhance unity within the workplace. As a
suggests that leadership resilience encompasses three feature of resilience, collectivism has been examined
major components: personalized communication, at the level of communities or regions to explain the
alertness, and stewardship. In our findings, personal- joint practices undertaken by multiple stakeholders in
ized communication emerges as a key competency the wake of major natural disasters such as tsunamis
that enables owner-managers to psycho-emotionally (Kayser, Wind, & Shankar, 2008). Yet, we know little
converse with and support each individual in the about the ways in which collectivism becomes instru-
workplace in light of the pandemic events. Alert- mental in business resilience and thus in business sur-
ness is a second leadership competency linked to an vival under adverse external conditions. In our study,
increased alertness to and monitoring of any poten- workplace harmony and collectivism stem from the
tial psychological problems arising within the work- owner-managers’ capacity to personalize their com-
place. A second facet of this alertness is linked to any munication approaches within their respective work-
entrepreneurial opportunities for business change or places. These findings provide new knowledge on the
expansion suited to take advantage of the new con- (path) dependency of business resilience on leader-
ditions or to alleviate any functional issues. Stew- ship resilience, knowledge that has yet to be reflected
ardship pertains to the enhanced acknowledgement, in the literature on business resilience.
made by the owner-managers of small family firms, Further, our study identifies ‘business agility’ as
that they act as actual stewards of their firms and a feature of small business resilience build-up in the
that the latter’s survival is merely down to their own midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Business agility
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appears as a firm’s ability to rapidly seize new oppor- as a consequence of exogenous shocks (Owen et al.,
tunities or to swiftly implement any ideas planned 2019). Family social capital is important for the sur-
for future development. Besides agility in entrepre- vival of family-owned businesses under adverse con-
neurialism, our study sheds light on a facet of agil- ditions, as it enables the transfer of resources from
ity linked to flexibility in reorganizing work to the family contacts external to the firm (Salvato & Melin,
end of meeting the diverse requests and needs of the 2008). While our study sheds light on the value of
workforce, such as being able to work from home family social capital as a means to fill any resource
during the pandemic. Whereas past work has iden- gaps for a firm (Salvato & Melin, 2008), it also illus-
tified different facets of agility such as supply chain trates the role played by owner-manager stewardship
flexibility (Gligor et al., 2019), operational agility (as a facet of leadership capacity) in mobilizing this
(Akhtar et al., 2018), and strategic agility (Weber & type of capital. Although stewardship has been linked
Tarba, 2014), our study relates more closely to the with family social capital mobilization within family
notion of strategic agility, which enables organiza- businesses (Bika & Kalantaridis, 2019), the connec-
tions to rapidly change direction and ways of organ- tion between these concepts has not been observed at
izing in response to environmental changes (Agar- the nexus between leadership and business resilience.
wal et al., 2007; Shams et al., 2021; Weber & Tarba,
2014). Strategic agility works well in the presence of 5.1 Theoretical and empirical contributions
dynamic capabilities, which enable an organization or
its managers to flexibly sense, seize, and reconfigure Through this study, we contribute theoretically and
any resources needed by a firm to adapt in the midst empirically to the literatures on small business resil-
of deep uncertainty (Teece, Pisano, & Shuen, 1997; ience and organizational resilience. First, we contrib-
Teece, Peteraf, & Leih, 2016). Despite being praised ute theoretically by conceptualizing the links between
for its value during exogenous shocks (Chakravarty et personal, leadership (role), and organizational resil-
al., 2013; Teece et al., 2016), strategic agility has not ience in small businesses. The path dependency of
been sufficiently addressed in relation to small busi- organizational resilience, as a capability, has been
ness resilience. While our study does not explicitly highlighted in the literature (Gittell et al., 2006; Ortiz-
address the role played by dynamic capabilities in de-Mandojana & Bansal, 2016); however, the extant
relation to business agility or resilience, it does hint work has focused on the organizational level, examin-
at the fact that owner-managers may possess the rele- ing the ways in which businesses develop such capa-
vant dynamic managerial capabilities (Helfat & Mar- bility over time when faced with unforeseen circum-
tin, 2015) that make them flexible enough to sense stances (Ortiz-de-Mandojana & Bansal, 2016). Our
and seize any ongoing growth opportunities and/or study conceptualizes organizational resilience as a
facilitate the organizational changes relevant to exog- path-dependent capability at the intersection between
enous shocks. Further, the agility needed to accom- person, role, and business. It provides a bottom-
modate employee working modes has not hitherto up theorization, placing the resilience of individual
been reflected in the literature and appears to be a owner-managers (in relation to their personal and role
novel finding linked to the COVID-19 pandemic con- capacities) as a key prerequisite for resilient-actions at
text. Additionally, our study provides novel evidence the business level. This contribution provides a mid-
pertaining to the path dependency between business range theory suited to explain the micro-prerequisites
agility and alertness, as facets of business and leader- of business resilience—specifically, the need for
ship resilience, respectively. owner-managers to nurture resilience at the personal
In the literature, access to and use of family and leadership levels. Our mid-range theory also sheds
resources has been examined in the context of fam- light on the threads found at the nexus between leader-
ily social capital (Herrero & Hughes, 2019; Salvato ship and organizational resilience, which justify organ-
& Melin, 2008). Our findings indicate the impor- izational resilience actions (i.e. workplace harmony/
tance of family members—who are external to a collectivism, business agility, resource mobilization
firm—in terms of filling any resource gaps. Past to the firm) as a manifestation of specific leadership
work illustrates that smaller firms are highly likely to qualities (i.e. personalized communication, alertness,
be affected by resource gaps, such as financial ones, and stewardship) possessed by owner-managers.
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Second, by drawing on the concept of psychologi- largely drawn upon the firm level to examine resil-
cal resilience (Fletcher & Sarkar, 2013; Kong et al., ience (e.g. Dahles & Susilowati, 2015; Iborra et al.,
2015), we introduce a novel psychological perspec- 2019), largely ignoring the role played by the indi-
tive to the study of organizational resilience. To viduals within organizations, which may be important
examine resilience at the firm level, previous studies in constructing resilient enterprises. Our multi-level
have drawn largely on organizational theories such as consideration enables a shift beyond the current non-
the resource-based view (Pal, Torstensson, & Mattila, dimensional understanding of resilience in organiza-
2014), organizational social capital (Fandiño et al., tions. Our study of resilience at both the individual
2019), and dynamic capabilities (Jiang et al., 2019). and firm levels sheds light on the existence of two
To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first forms of resilience—i.e. individual (which can be fur-
to draw upon a psychological perspective to exam- ther broken down into personal and leadership resil-
ine firm resilience. In doing so, we uncovered, within ience) and firm resilience—which can set the grounds
organizational resilience, essential micro-dynamics for future work drawing on the multiple forms of
linked to the personal lives and leadership capacities resilience found within organizational settings.
of individual owner-managers that had hitherto been
latent in the organizational resilience literature.
Third, we contribute theoretically to the small 5.2 Practical implications
business resilience literature through context-based
theorization. Our study contextualizes the individ- Our findings provide essential practical implications
ual-firm resilience nexus within the COVID-19 pan- suited to help enhance the owner-manager and small
demic, shedding light on its resilience-specificities for business resiliencies in the face of exogenous crises
individual owner-managers and small firms. It pro- such as the COVID-19 pandemic. First, we provide
vides insights linked to the idiosyncrasies and dynam- information on essential personal-level responses that
ics of the COVID-19 pandemic, thus responding to can guide the leadership role of owner-managers in
the calls made to contextualize findings in order to the midst of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. For
better understand the influences and practices that instance, our findings highlight the need for owner-
lead to small business continuity (Zahra et al., 2014). managers to strike an inner (psycho-emotional) bal-
Fourth, we contribute empirically to the litera- ance and a personal work-life one before practicing
ture on small business resilience by generating new leadership in the midst of the pandemic. Our findings
knowledge on the micro-underpinnings of small busi- illustrate that such balances are essential in assisting
ness resilience. These involve the personal qualities owner-managers in the practice of value-added lead-
exhibited and reflections made by individual owner- ership within a COVID-19-plagued world. Further,
managers in the midst of the pandemic in order to we highlight specific qualities—such as personal-
bounce back or endure at the personal level and the ized communication, alertness, and stewardship—as
ways in which personal resilience feeds leadership essential for conducive leadership within the work-
responses across a number of dimensions (i.e. com- place. Business owners and/or managers could draw
munication, alertness, and stewardship) to facilitate upon these areas in order to better contextualize their
business resilience. Although owner-managers are leadership approaches in the midst of the pandemic.
acknowledged for their centrality and pervasive roles Second, given that, in times of crisis, smaller firms
in small businesses (Gibson & Cassar, 2005; Mc Car- may face similar complexities and constraints, their
tan-Quinn & Carson, 2003), we know little about how owners-managers could benefit from forming commu-
their resilience can influence that of smaller firms. nities of practice (Brown & Duguid, 1998) or social
Fifth, we respond to the calls made for research networks (Carroll & Teo, 1996) to navigate through
on organizational resilience at a multi-level unit of the COVID-19 pandemic. Physical or virtual spaces
analysis (Santoro et al., 2021). We contribute meth- could be used to bring together owner-managers to
odologically to the organizational resilience litera- socialize and openly discuss their pandemic-related
ture by simultaneously focussing on the individual issues at both the management and business levels.
and organizational levels in order to examine small Drawing upon the findings of our study, such com-
business resilience. The extant literature had hitherto munities or networks could help in the co-production
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of knowledge aimed at helping individual owner- an understanding of which micro-foundations, rela-

managers to enhance their personal, leadership, and tions, and influences are relevant to the study of
business-specific resiliencies and understand the organizational resilience.
connections between them. For instance, knowledge Third, our longitudinal study drew on carrying
co-production could centre on how managers might out same-sample interview sessions within a small
become more attentive and personalized in their com- timeframe (10 months) to examine the individual-
munication with their employees in order to help their organization resilience nexus in the context of the
firms to preserve or enhance organizational harmony. COVID-19 pandemic. This time horizon may not be
Third, given that exogenous crises, such as the substantial enough to draw valid conclusions, par-
COVID-19 pandemic, are particularly threatening to ticularly on the path dependence of organizational
the survival of smaller firms, policymakers and small resilience, which reflects a build-up of organizational
firm associations could also take note of our findings capabilities over a long-term perspective (Gittell
in order to enhance small business resilience. Adopt- et al., 2006; Ortiz-de-Mandojana & Bansal, 2016).
ing supply-side policies and increasing spending on Future longitudinal studies could look into individ-
training in order to improve the resilience skills of ual-organization resilience over a longer time horizon
small business owner-managers would be useful. and, should the circumstances permit, across different
Small firm associations could also play an active role crises. This could yield a more holistic understand-
in designing and running training programmes tar- ing of the shifts and developments found at both the
geted at owner-managers. Drawing upon the findings individual and organizational levels, concerning the
of our study, training programmes could be designed build-up of relevant resilience capacities.
with the aim of enhancing both the owner-managers’ Fourth, as not all small firms are owner-managed,
personal and leadership resilience qualities, which our findings do not apply to those run by management
are essential for small business resilience. Therefore, teams or boards (e.g. Kollmann et al., 2017; Vya-
training may need to encompass modules drawing on karnam & Handelberg, 2005). Future research could
both psychology and the business disciplines. replicate our study or test our model by drawing on
managerial teams within smaller firms. This could
5.3 Limitations and avenues for future research provide insights on managerial-team psychological
resilience and on the ways in which this can influence
Our study is not free from limitations, but does pro- business resilience.
vide opportunities for future work in the field of small Finally, our choice of a sample involving firms
business resilience. First, our study drew on a small that had survived the COVID19 pandemic implied
sample, one not substantial enough to extract valid an underlying survivor bias; this involved a lack of
conclusions generalizable across small businesses. insights from firms that had failed. The risk here is
Consequently, future work could be based on larger that survivor bias may have yielded an illusory rela-
samples and conduct survey-based quantitative inves- tionship between variables (Kalnins, 2007). Future
tigations to the end of extracting more valid results. research could draw upon diverse samples or carry
Future quantitative work could draw upon our find- out various studies among survivor and failed firms
ings, and particularly upon our conceptual model, to understand whether the underlying circumstances
to measure our emergent concepts and test the rela- concerning resilient capabilities and processes are
tionships we propose. Second, our study was carried fundamentally different between the two samples.
out in a small-country context (i.e., Cyprus), which
implies the presence of idiosyncrasies (e.g. culture
and business practices) that may not be applicable in 6 Conclusions
other contexts. Future qualitative work should be car-
ried out in other contexts in order to enable the draw- Our study has examined the ways in which owner-
ing of definite conclusions on the relevance of the manager resilience influences that of small firms.
person-role-organization nexus in studies on organi- We provide insights into the micro-underpinnings of
zational resilience. Further, future work drawing upon resilience within small firms, which are linked to the
cross-national studies and comparisons could provide responses enacted and resilient qualities possessed by
Vol.: (0123456789)
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owner-managers at both the personal and leadership on entrepreneurship and small businesses. Small Busi-
levels. While, by drawing on a psychological perspec- ness Economics, 1–17.
Bell, E., Bryman, A., & Harley, B. (2018). Business research
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business resilience at the person-role-organization Bernard, M. J., & Barbosa, S. D. (2016). Resilience and entre-
nexus, our study is also the first to contextualize small preneurship: A dynamic and biographical approach to the
firm resilience within the COVID-19 pandemic. entrepreneurial act. M@n@gement, 19(2), 89–123.
Bika, Z., & Kalantaridis, C. (2019). Organizational-social-cap-
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Brammer, S., Branicki, L., & Linnenluecke, M. K. (2020).
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in Society. Academy of Management Perspectives, 34(4),
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Branicki, L. J., Sullivan-Taylor, B., & Livschitz, S. R. (2018).
Conflict of interest The authors declare no competing inter- How entrepreneurial resilience generates resilient SMEs.
ests. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior &
Research, 24(7), 1244–1263.
Brown, J. S., & Duguid, P. (1998). Organizing Knowledge.
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Small Bus Econ (2022) 59:1351–1380

Contextualizing small business resilience

Accepted: 10 November 2021 / Published online: 28 January 2022

S. Tarba JEL classification L26

1 Introduction & Bansal, 2016), it is likely that resilient firms will

2 Theoretical background Shepherd et al., 2020). While owner-managers can be

Table.1 Profiles of participating businesses and interviewees

1 ReMark Nikos Market Nicosia NF 5 2011 2 Apr, Oct

25 Sunblock Periklis Shading Nicosia FB 44 1977 2 May, Nov

1st Order Concepts 2nd Order Categories Aggregate Dimensions

Optimistic outlook; Confidence that problems can be solved; Personal

Personal experiences feed reflection; Self-reflection on pandemic

Alertness for entrepreneurial opportunities to renew the business;

Realization of stewardship role in the firm; realization of role

Open discussions to resolve pandemic obstacles at work; Collective

Monitoring the pandemic conditions; Swift implementation of Business

Fig. 1 Data structure

together under a second-order category that we 4 Findings

Table.2 Resilient conditions exhibited by owner-managers

Businesses remain- Maria (Bella Me) √ √

Businesses operat- Andreas (Arrow √ √

√Owner-manager highlighting action/ability/state

Table.3 Personal-role resilience nexus

Personalized Enhanced personal/personalized com- Owner-manager’s close interaction and –

Stewardship – – Stewardship enhances the reliance on family

PERSON ROLE ORGANIZATION

PERSONAL RESILIENCE LEADERSHIP RESILIENCE BUSINESS RESILIENCE

Personalized Workplace Harmony &

Alertness Business agility

outlook and Balance (inner

Fig. 2 Small business resilience at the person-role-organization nexus

of knowledge aimed at helping individual owner- an understanding of which micro-foundations, rela-

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2 Theoretical background Shepherd et al., 2020). While owner-managers can be

together under a second-order category that we 4 Findings