Cushioning the Covid-19 Economic Consequences on Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: The Role of Stakeholders` Engagement, Collaboration, and Support

ABSTRACT The Covid-19 (corona virus) disruptions have necessitated a new way of thinking about how entrepreneurship and its environments (ecosystems) function in times of heightened uncertainty. Based on a sample of 237 entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) stakeholders in Tanzania – an emerging economy, we examine the pandemic economic consequences steered by government countermeasures on the EE-perceived quality and performance. We further examined the role played by EE stakeholders` engagement, collaboration, and support during the crisis. Our structural equation model results suggest that strictness of government counter measures for containment of the current pandemic predicament has a bearing on EE- perceived quality and performance by fueling EE vulnerability via amplifying the magnitude of the negative effects. We further find that stakeholders` engagement and collaboration play a significant role in improving the EE-perceived quality and slowing down EE-vulnerability. We conclude by providing the implications and avenues for future research.