This paper analyses how different entrepreneurial actors respond to political uncertainty and changing institutional settings. Moreover, it discusses the impact of those actor-level responses on the resilience of entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs), focusing on how they affect the diversity of and the connectivity among its actors. To address these questions, the paper examines how the decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union has influenced the financial technology (FinTech) industry in London, applying data collected from in-depth interviews, covering different groups of stakeholders in London’s FinTech industry, such as angel investors, banks, legal advisers, lobby organizations and private companies. Our results show that political uncertainty and the prospect of institutional change can trigger actor-level responses, which have the potential to modify the diversity as well as the local and non-local connectivity of an EE. Moreover, we demonstrate that the nature of strategic responses of entrepreneurial actors varies significantly, depending on their firms’ characteristics, such as age, size, product specialization and the structure of their egocentric networks. With regard to the latter, our results show that anchor firms play an important role in other firms’ egocentric networks and have the power to shape their strategic responses.

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The following paper analyses whether becoming self‐employed can help to reduce the vulnerability to poverty of rural households. We use data collected during four survey waves in three rural provinces in Vietnam to calculate region‐specific logistic panel regressions. The results show that becoming self‐employed increases the likelihood of poor households escaping poverty, but only if they are located in a regional economic environment characterized by an advanced stage of structural change, good infrastructural conditions, and proximity to markets. In less well‐developed regions, becoming self‐employed is not sufficient to increase the probability of poor households escaping poverty. What matters more is that self‐employment is driven by opportunity and not by necessity. However, even opportunity‐driven self‐employment does not guarantee a reduction of vulnerability to poverty in all regional settings and for all household types. Especially, regional overspecialization in cash‐crop production and inequality in access to assets have to be taken into account. In times of declining commodity prices, self‐employment entails a risk of business failure in regions that are overspecialized in cash‐crop production. For households whose initial investment is high and whose endowment with social and educational assets is low, this can result in increased vulnerability to poverty.

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PurposeThe paper examines the sudden changes and challenges experienced by British craft breweries because of COVID-19. The purpose is twofold; firstly, to evaluate the overall growth trajectory of the craft brewing sector prior to the pandemic crisis and, secondly, to identify features of resilience and adaptability that aided business survival.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted 24 interviews with a sample of craft brewers during 2020, supplemented with a focus group later in 2021, to understand the impacts of COVID-19 on their businesses. Inductive thematic analysis followed a flexible six-stage approach to generating codes. Qualitative findings were set in the context of the pre-COVID-19 industry trends which were analysed using panel data from the Society of Independent Brewers' (SIBA) Annual Surveys between 2015 and 2018.FindingsFindings from the analysis reveal a range of factors influencing growth in the UK craft beer sector before the pandemic crisis, such as levels of investment and local network ties, and identify a range of strategies implemented by brewers in response to the crisis, including new packaging and supply channels, more intensive marketing and greater online engagement with customers. Analysis of the intersection between aspects of individual and organisational resilience also revealed that dynamic responses to an external crisis depend on individual resilience characteristics before organisational strategies can be developed.Originality/valueThe study provides fresh empirical evidence to practitioners and policymakers to help forecast and future-proof the UK craft beer sector, as well as elucidating aspects of resilience that apply to SMEs in the global industry who face similar challenges. Moving towards a post-COVID-19 economy, the paper offers important theoretical insights into how the resilience of breweries, and other SMEs, is shaped by complex interdependencies and networks and how their adaptive responses might strengthen future business models.