Entrepreneurship and Economic Resilience in Times of Crisis: Insights from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Exogenous shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic pose major challenges to firms and even entire economies, moving the concept of economic resilience to the foreground. Market actors need to adequately respond to prevalent crises to secure their market position and long-term survival. Entrepreneurship has thereby been identified as a critical lever in creating resilient economies. Based on their innovative capacities, entrepreneurs are able to dynamically adapt to new market conditions and offer (new) solutions to recent problems. Focusing on Germany, this chapter investigates how entrepreneurship was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and how entrepreneurs responded to the dramatically changing business environment. It further evaluates current policy approaches meant to support entrepreneurs and strengthen economic resilience. The chapter concludes with a discussion on effective policy instruments aimed at promoting economic recovery and derives policy recommendations.