Resilience and recovery: examining entrepreneurial adaptations of SME hotels

Extraordinary developments cause unprecedented stress and press for unique resilience to recover the business, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises. This study adopted an analytical research design integrating qualitative and quantitative analysis to address how entrepreneurs coped with the pandemic effects and recovered their businesses. Qualitative analysis based on Focused Group Discussion (FGD) (12 participants) and in-depth interviews (5 interviewees) explored the relevant issues in different contexts, and a survey questionnaire was developed. Structured equation modeling was used to analyze the survey-based quantitative data collected from 466 hotel entrepreneurs selected purposive-quota basis. The study concludes that entrepreneurs with high self-efficacy, hard-working attitude, high need for achievement, and resourcefulness gained resilience and recovered entrepreneurial actions. The study stresses the need for an effective, reliable, and adequate entrepreneurial ecosystem developed by government agencies, financial institutions, and industry associations to support operational disruption, revenue loss, and moral boost. These findings establish a set of critical determinants for restoring entrepreneurial intentions and actions from uncertainty. Furthermore, the study supports a comprehensive theoretical framework using the theory of planned behavior, entrepreneurial even model, resource-based view, entrepreneurial ideas model, dynamic capabilities framework, and psychological resilience theories to address resilience and recovery of entrepreneurial intention in crisis.