Riding the Roller-Coaster: A Pivot Process During Covid-19

Abstract

This article investigates how a new venture responded to the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic by performing a pivot. A pivot is a process of radically transforming the current business model of a young venture in case of a (potential) failure. So far, researchers have paid scant attention to the consequences of pivots, neglecting the “after pivot” phase of the pivot process. We propose that a pivot alters a new venture's business model, reallocates or restructures resources and capabilities, which, in turn, leads to a lasting impact on the organization and its identity. Drawing on an inductive, longitudinal case study of the fast-growing new venture “Gazelle”, this paper identifies three effects. First, it shows how a pivot is interrelated with “entrepreneurial vibrancy”, i.e. the unconditional maintenance of the entrepreneurial spirit and action despite hostile circumstances. Second, our case exemplifies how the Covid-19 pandemic created an existential crisis and triggered a unique recovery trajectory of the new venture, which we characterize as the “Phoenix effect”. Third, the “sedimentation effect” depicts how changes along the pivot process imprinted into the new venture’s identity.