Entrepreneurial Resilience: A Renewed Perspective

Abstract

This book chapter aims to offer a renewed perspective on entrepreneurship triggered in the face of business uncertainty and national crisis. The chapter introduces attributional theory as a basis to identify how individuals develop their internal capabilities to become successful in trying circumstances. This chapter uses reviews of literature from entrepreneurship, resilience and entrepreneurial resilience, which is viewed from the theoretical lens of attributional theory. The study introduces a conceptual framework based on the literature, which is further discussed in its context. The conceptual views are supported through specific examples taken from Sri Lanka, which is the key context of the chapter. Our contribution sheds new light on entrepreneurial resilience and the context. As a renewed perspective, we suggest that entrepreneurial resilience is a dynamic trigger force initiating the entrepreneurial process among entrepreneurs in resource-constrained environments such as Sri Lanka. In this new perspective, there is a need to reconsider entrepreneurial resilience beyond being a critical ability that an entrepreneur should be equipped with to overcome challenges and adapt to uncertainties. Future research could explore the possibility of how the three internal attributional dimensions (innovation, experience, and attitude) support uncertainty and/or crisis triggered entrepreneurship, that is, necessity entrepreneurship.