Abstract
PurposeThis study aims to analyze the influence of job autonomy and unscripted agility on ambidextrous innovation in startups in times of the Covid-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachA survey was conducted with founders and managers of Brazilian startups in the e-commerce segment, resulting in a sample of 84 startups. Symmetric (structural equation modeling) and asymmetric (fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis) analyses were performed. The variables' external financing and institutional ties were controlled.FindingsThe symmetric findings indicate that unscripted agility is a full mediator between job autonomy and ambidextrous innovation. The asymmetric findings offer two solutions for startups to achieve high ambidextrous innovation.Research limitations/implicationsThe implications of the research for the literature are discussing elements associated with ambidextrous innovation, exploring the context of innovation in startups in times of crisis, specifically in the Covid-19 pandemic, and considering the role of resilience in startups.Practical implicationsThe study provides informational inputs to founders and managers of startups on how job autonomy and unscripted agility can propel incremental and radical innovations.Originality/valueThis study provides new insights and success factors into startups, based on the discussion of entrepreneurship in times of crisis, as in the case of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Highlights
Periods of crisis affect organizations and can threaten their survival (Doern, Williams & Vorley, 2019), and it is not different in the context of Covid-19 (Verma & Gustafsson, 2020), which broke out in December 2019 in China and was declared a global pandemic in March 2020 (Hua & Shaw, 2020)
The results indicated that unscripted agility has a mediating role in the association of job autonomy and ambidextrous innovation
4.3 Discussion of the results H1 proposes that job autonomy has a direct and positive effect on the unscripted agility of startups in times of the Covid-19 pandemic, and it had support for acceptance (β 5 0.364, p < 0.05)
Summary
Periods of crisis affect organizations and can threaten their survival (Doern, Williams & Vorley, 2019), and it is not different in the context of Covid-19 (Verma & Gustafsson, 2020), which broke out in December 2019 in China and was declared a global pandemic in March 2020 (Hua & Shaw, 2020). Even startups, which permeate innovation and search for quick answers to society’s challenges (Spender, Corvello, Grimaldi & Rippa, 2017), may have their continuity threatened by the pandemic (Kuckertz et al, 2020). The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/ legalcode
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