Analyzing the Elements of Startups' Resilience in COVID 19 Crisis Using Theme Analysis Approach

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the life of growing businesses, especially startups. Considering the importance of this category of businesses and their considerable role in developing countries, the present research aims to provide a model for increasing the resilience of startups during the Covid-19 pandemic by using theme analysis approach. This research is a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods in terms of practical purpose, in terms of descriptive-survey method and in terms of the type of methods used. In the first stage of the research, using the study of theoretical foundations, the factors shaping resilience were identified. Then, by conducting unstructured interviews with experts in the field of startups and university professors, the final factors affecting resilience were summarized and the initial research model was designed using theme analysis method. In the following, the research questionnaire was distributed among the employees of startups in Guilan province using the available method, and after collecting, 238 healthy questionnaires were analyzed using structural equation modeling and SmartPLS3 software. The findings show that according to the intensity of the coefficients of the research model, the characteristics of the organization (0.526), ​​the characteristics of the leader (0.433), the characteristics of the team (0.298) and the characteristics of the employees (0.244), to the order has the most influence on the resilience of startups. These results help stakeholders and researchers to gain a more appropriate understanding of the resilience of startups.