The impact of SME leader’s psychological capital on strategic responses during crisis

This study investigates how the Psychological Capital (PsyCap) of small and medium enterprises (SME) leaders has influenced their strategic responses, ultimately impacting the performance of their companies, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Embedded within research on behavioral micro-foundations in strategy, and based on the resource-based theory (RBT) of the individual entrepreneur as well as positive organizational behavior literature, we hypothesize that SME leaders’ psychological resources can act as a strategic advantage during crises by making them adopt cost-cutting and investment measures for their companies performance. By using a sample of 372 SMEs, we find that while leaders mostly use both measures, leaders with a high PsyCap prefer adopting investment measures, which positively influences the performance of their companies during a crisis. However, adopting cost-cutting measures lowers performance. We contribute to the entrepreneurship literature by using PsyCap in the context of the RBT of the individual entrepreneur and shedding light on which measures sustain or increase SMEs’ performance during a crisis. JEL CLASSIFICATION: D91; L25; L26; M10