The COVID-19 pandemic and family business performance.

This study examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on corporate financial performance using a unique, cross-country, and longitudinal sample of 3350 listed firms worldwide. We find that the financial performance of family firms has been significantly higher than that of nonfamily firms during the COVID-19 pandemic, accounting for pre-pandemic business conditions. This effect is pertinent to firms with strong family involvement in management or in both management and ownership. We also identify the role of firm-, industry-, and country-level contingencies for family business financial performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study offers a novel understanding of the financial resilience across different types of family business and sets an agenda for future research on the drivers of resilience of family firms to adverse events. It also provides important and novel evidence for policymakers, particularly for firms with different ownership and management structures.

Responding to unexpected crises: The roles of slack resources and entrepreneurial attitude to build resilience.

This study explores how entrepreneurial firms responded to - and displayed resilience in - coping with the uncertainty generated by an unexpected crisis. We examine how entrepreneurs leveraged slack resources to build organizational resilience and, thanks to their entrepreneurial attitude, could eventually turn adversities into opportunities. Through a multiple case study, four key entrepreneurial responses emerge about the type of slack resources (business or family) and extent of entrepreneurial attitude (favourable or unfavourable) leveraged: "waiting while seeding", "keeping business as usual", "striving to resist" and "surfing the pandemic". Slack resources, both business and family, can enable the absorption of a shock, contributing to building absorptive resilience, or the adaptation to the shock, contributing to building adaptive resilience. Yet, they are not sufficient to turn adversities into opportunities because firms also require a favourable entrepreneurial attitude to activate slack. Plain English Summary How entrepreneurial firms respond to - and display resilience in - coping with a crisis's uncertainty varies according to the entrepreneurial attitude of the entrepreneur and the typology of slack resource leveraged. We find that these firms responded to the Covid 19 crisis either through: "waiting while seeding", "keeping business as usual", "striving to resist" or "surfing the pandemic". The four responses differ in the type of slack resources - business or family - and extent of entrepreneurial attitude - favourable or unfavourable - leveraged. Slack resources, both business and family, are not sufficient to turn adversities into opportunities because firms require a favourable entrepreneurial attitude to activate slack. The study contributes to business practice by showing that both family and non-family businesses to thrive in the "new normal" era will have to develop the entrepreneurial resources of the team. Policymakers must be attentive to how firms' accumulated resources are deployed during times of crisis and foster the capture of opportunities out of the storm.