Pivots as strategic responses to crises: Evidence from Italian companies navigating Covid-19

Abstract

The Covid-19 outbreak in 2019 and beyond severely threatened global supply chains and markets. Firms worldwide saw their operations limited by governmental restrictions, compromising the viability of their business models and challenging previously established assumptions. This situation offered an opportunity to investigate new ventures’ processes of business model transformation (or pivoting) during a major crisis. Specifically, adopting a multiple case study design, we investigated how four Italian firms operating throughout the Covid-19 emergency pivoted in response to the crisis. We develop a conceptual model of pivots-as-process that comprises three stages: reaction to shock, response, and retrospection, leading to longer-term strategic reorientation. Our findings suggest that pivots play out across the three distinct layers of enactment, reflection, and awareness. Our study contributes to the ongoing debate on strategic responses to crises, borrowing from the entrepreneurship literature to investigate how pivots can support firms when they are faced with a need for swift responses, while coping with the temporariness that characterizes crisis situations.