When and where does entrepreneurship contribute to local resilience?

We investigate when and where entrepreneurship contributes to the resilience of local economies. In doing so, we contribute to the advancement of a field that has received limited scholarly attention. We isolate the local dimension of entrepreneurship to evaluate its distinct role in enhancing local adaptability using a dynamic shift–share method applied to data on labour market areas in France between 2007 and 2015. Local resilience is evaluated by examining employment trends before, during and after significant shocks, with a specific focus on the 2008–09 Global Financial Crisis. Spatial Durbin model results show that local economies with stronger entrepreneurial activity exhibit more robust recovery patterns and greater long-term stability. This result is confirmed using alternative spatial models, including the spatial autoregressive model (SAR), spatial error model (SEM) and spatial autocorrelation model (SAC). Entrepreneurship not only supports immediate recovery after a crisis but also strengthens the structural foundations of local economies, thereby improving the ability to withstand future shocks. Our results remain robust when using geographically weighted regression to control for spatial heterogeneity. Overall, the study emphasises the importance of entrepreneurial dynamism as a driver of local resilience. The policy implications suggest that promoting and supporting local entrepreneurship could be an effective way to improve local economic adaptability and sustainable growth.