Bouncing, believing and building: Resilient coping, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, perceived venture performance, and state fragility

Using data from 19,593 entrepreneurs across 37 countries, we examine whether the associations among resilient coping, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and perceived venture performance vary across levels of state fragility. The results show that the conditional indirect effect of resilience on perceived venture performance through entrepreneurial self-efficacy is stronger in non-fragile contexts than in the most fragile contexts represented by the Iraqi and Nigerian samples. In the most fragile context, resilience is more directly associated with perceived venture performance, while the association between resilience and entrepreneurial self-efficacy becomes stronger under moderate fragility before weakening under extreme fragility. This exploratory pattern is consistent with the possibility that resilience may serve multiple functions across contextual conditions, while primarily supporting capability building in more stable environments and serving a more direct, maintenance-oriented role under extreme fragility. The findings point to the importance of context-sensitive approaches to entrepreneurial support and capability development.