Investigation of the Role of Resilience Amongst Disadvantaged Entrepreneurs Through the Lens of Effectual Logic

A gap is identified in the extant literature on the antecedents of the effectuation theory. We investigate whether resilience acts as an antecedent to the effectual logic of action amongst disadvantaged entrepreneurs. While disadvantaged entrepreneurs remain the focus of entrepreneurship research, they are yet to be studied as a unit of analysis for theory development. Resilience too, as a construct, has not been explored in-depth in the entrepreneurship literature. This study tries to bridge the gap underpinning antecedents of effectuation theory and uses multiple linear regression for predictive analysis with (N = 522) and semi-structured interviews to perform qualitative analysis. We find that emotional resilience, social competence and social support have a direct effect on effectual logic whereas community coherence and path dependence have a moderating effect. Our findings make a significant contribution to the theory of effectuation and policy advocacy for disadvantaged entrepreneurs