Pathways to survive in adversities: An fsQCA analysis of entrepreneurial team resilience configurations

As business environments become increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, adversities are all around in new venture teams. How can entrepreneurial teams apply different configurations to achieve high resilience (or avoid not-high resilience) amid adversity? To answer this question, we adopt fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) by investigating parsimonious configurations to explicate complex nonlinear relationships among resilience factors. Based on survey data and interview data from 25 entrepreneurial teams in an entrepreneurship competition, we conclude two main solutions that indicate resilient behavior after an adverse event. Connection-building solution with team mental model and team social capital as the core conditions, and innovation-encouraging solution with team improvisation and team psychological safety as the core conditions. Based on asymmetry, an absence of team improvisation and team social capital simultaneously is associated with not-high entrepreneurial team resilience. The study provides implications for further research on causal complexity in entrepreneurial resilience and for managers to reexamine resilience elements in the face of adversity.