New venture team persistence: a dynamic model of how resilient teams transform collective adaptive responses under adversity

This study examines how a new venture team’s resilience interacts with adversity to determine its persistence at the team level. The existing research on entrepreneurial persistence is scant, but the topic has gained attention recently. Understanding why and how entrepreneurs persist under adversity and how they survive and thrive is meaningful. We propose that adversity can help teams transform and adapt by facilitating adaptive and collective responses. This study reveals the nuances of maladaptive and adaptive responses. The results indicate two processes that can help a new venture team exit a maladaptive state and thrive: the spread-and-activation process and the exploration-and-integration process. This study contributes to the literature because it views resilience and persistence under adversity as a process, one that can help a new venture team recognize whether their state is maladaptive and respond appropriately. Furthermore, the existing literature views maladaptive and adaptive responses as separate agents in resilience, traditionally viewing adaption as an outcome rather than a process. This study’s model argues that entrepreneurial resilience entails taking steps to escape from a maladaptive state to reach a reconstructed mental model of the interaction between self(selves) and the adverse situation.