Relational Entrepreneurial Perseverance in Extreme Contexts

Abstract

Entrepreneurs who face recurring crises must repeatedly navigate lengthy recovery processes. In this article, we go beyond immediate responses and individual-level outcomes to focus on the evolution of entrepreneurial perseverance as entrepreneurs engage with broader recovery efforts post-crisis. We examined the experiences of 33 entrepreneurs during and following the Calbuco Volcano eruptions in Chile from 2015 to 2019. We discovered three social cues that reinforce entrepreneurial perseverance over extended periods of time: descriptive (the sharing of recovery memories), injunctive (the socialization of recovery work ethic), and symbolic (the celebration of recovery legacies). Findings show how socially reinforced entrepreneurial perseverance becomes intertwined with broader recovery efforts creating a sustained collective response to crisis, which we theorize as relational entrepreneurial perseverance in extreme contexts. This changes our understanding of long-term entrepreneurial perseverance. Perseverance resides not simply in the individual entrepreneur but in social reinforcement, social support, and the capacity for connection, that is, the connection between individual actions, group principles, and community celebration. These create entrepreneurial recovery legacies that act as memory assets to be used when the next crisis hits.