Thriving Against All Odds – How Start-up Teams Cope with Radical Uncertainty

Abstract

Uncertainty is one of the most known characteristics of entrepreneurial endeavors, continuously threatening start-up teams’ performance and well-being. However, knowledge on how start-up teams deal with radical uncertainty is limited. Drawing on conservation of resources theory and regulatory focus theory, we examine how start-up teams entrepreneurially cope with radical uncertainty in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a convergent parallel mixed method design, we analyze 12 waves of survey data and four waves of interviews collected in 35 start-up teams in Germany. Our analysis of temporal development of predictors (quantitative results) and entrepreneurs’ views (qualitative analysis) explains the coping mechanisms to reduce performance impairment and compassion fatigue. Our study contributes to research on start-up teams, well-being, and uncertainty in entrepreneurship.