Among crises: how businesspeople built expectations of resilience in the face of COVID-19

Abstract

Abstract Interviews with 60 businesspeople coping with COVID-19 show that they elaborate the pandemic with reference to other crises they have faced. A model of sensemaking among crises is put forward, conceptualizing crises as recurrent, rather than singular or continuous. Among crises, comparisons to past experiences help make sense of the present situation: businesspeople who perceived COVID-19 to have analogues to crises they had (successfully) faced before felt hopeful about their ability to cope with the pandemic, while those who insisted that the pandemic was without precedent were more pessimistic than their peers. In this way, crises enter cultural repertoires, helping to make sense of unsettled times and even underpinning expectations of resilience. This process is an integral part of the entrepreneurial story: given cultural repertoires replete with narratives of virtuous economic actors successfully surmounting crises and managing risk, it is among crises that businesspeople either substantiate or challenge such beliefs.