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Economy-wide crises create major challenges for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Existing studies emphasize the crucial role of contrasting behavioral strategies, effectuation and causation in SMEs' adaptation to crisis conditions. Yet, prior literature concentrated predominantly on exploring the impact of effectuation and causation on firm performance rather than survival. The authors present and empirically test a theoretical model explaining how behavioral strategies affect SME survival during an economy-wide crisis under different levels of environmental dynamism.

The authors propose a theoretical framework based on the combination of the effectuation literature and the emerging variance-based perspective on entrepreneurial actions. The theoretical model is then tested using a sample of Russian SMEs during a period of economic adversity and recovery (2015–2019).

The empirical results reveal that causation reduces the probability of firm survival in dynamic environments, while effectuation increases the chance of survival irrespective of the state of the environment. In a nutshell, the study provides evidence that the effectuation logic serves a viable way for SMEs to increase the chances of survival through the economic shock and subsequent recovery period.

For the first time in the literature, the authors demonstrate the role of behavioral strategy (effectual and causal) as a crucial antecedent of SME survival in the short and medium term, particularly during an economy-wide downturn. Furthermore, the study demonstrates the power of variability-based theorizing for explaining and predicting the survival/failure implications of entrepreneurial actions.

Although entrepreneurship represents one of the main driving forces of socio-economic development of any nation, women continue to be underrepresented in this domain. The aim of this paper is to examine the role that relevant university education and environment play in narrowing the gender gap in youth entrepreneurship.

Drawing on the GUESSS 2021 dataset, the final sample includes 4,813 student-respondents from 21 higher education institutions located in Russia. Our hypotheses were tested using Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) regression analyses with the help of Stata 14.2 software.

Our results indicate that in Russia there is a substantial imbalance between male and female students regarding their level of involvement in entrepreneurial activities. University entrepreneurship education reduces this gap by boosting young women’s engagement into entrepreneurship, while the effect of university environment is not significant.

This research draws on both the social roles’ theory and the university embeddedness perspective to provide a contextualized evidence on factors that may reduce the entrepreneurial gender gap of youth in an emerging market setting.

Previous studies considered effectuation and causation as alternative decision-making strategies used by entrepreneurs to navigate uncertainty, having various individual- and firm-level antecedents. This study aims to broaden our understanding of individual-level antecedents by examining the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) temporal focus in decision-making processes in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Based on a multiple case study research design, the authors empirically analyse 16 Russian SMEs to uncover how the CEO temporal focus relates to the choice of effectuation/causation strategies under uncertainty.

CEOs with past orientation tend to adopt causation, future-oriented CEOs adhere to effectuation, while present-focused CEOs rely on both decision-making strategies (i.e. ambidexterity). Prior crisis-related experience is the underlying mechanism behind the relationship between CEO temporal orientation and effectuation/causation strategies. The authors formulate several propositions that may be tested in future studies in the field.

The contribution of this study consists in uncovering a new individual-level antecedent of effectuation/causation under uncertainty (i.e. CEO temporal focus) and suggesting that prior crisis experience acts as a mechanism underlying this relationship. The authors advance the strategic leadership theory by underscoring the CEO’s role in decision-making processes in SMEs.

A strategic response to crisis research is a critical and growing area of study in management and business literature. Consequently, the sudden rise of COVID-19, that has a substantial adverse impact on the global economy in a relatively short period of time, brings into sharp focus on the possible and most effective types of strategic responses adopted by firms. In this context, this study aims to shed light on the types of strategic responses adopted by firms and the possible outcomes.

To contribute to the advancement of knowledge around strategic responses in general for business, this study conducted a keyword bibliometric analysis reviewing 66 articles from highly ranked journals according to ABS list of journals published between the period 2006–2020 and synthesize the existing research on strategic responses.

This research enabled the identification of the novel typology of strategic responses to the crisis, such as revived stakeholders’ relationships, revived pricing mechanisms and revived organizational compliance, and their outcomes. Additionally, the analysis established many research areas for scholars who will deal with this topic in the future.

The literature review contributes to the management and business literature by providing a novel and comprehensive classification of crisis responses and synthesizing all new knowledge gained within a new conceptual framework.

The current business environment is characterized by high levels of uncertainty that affect the global economic system and have the greatest impact on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). With an elevated degree of perceived uncertainty, Chief executive officers' (CEOs) of SMEs find themselves in a situation where the old approaches to decision-making are irrelevant and the time to create new ones is limited. The purpose of this study is to examine whether appealing to personal values helps CEOs cope with a high level of perceived uncertainty and make decisions about the further development of the firm by undertaking business model innovations (BMI).

This study follows a multiple case study research design drawing on data collected from 10 Russian SMEs.

The authors show that CEOs’ communion values lead to innovations in the revenue model and value architecture dimensions of the business model. CEOs who are inclined to agentic values introduce innovations in the revenue model and value offering dimensions. Those executives who balance between the two types of values tend to also balance between different types of innovations in the elements of the business model.

The results indicate that personal values of CEOs play an important role in managerial processes and the strategic choice of a BMI type. Moreover, personal temporal focus orientation serves as a translation mechanism in the relationship between CEO values and BMI in SME settings.

This study examines the relationship between strategic entrepreneurial behaviors (SEBs) and the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in an emerging market context. The authors expand upon prior work in this area by building and testing a model that assesses the moderating effect of CEOs’ narcissism and Machiavellianism on the relationship between SEBs and SME performance.

To test the authors’ theoretical model, the authors use the results of a larger data collection project in Russia to create a national random sample of 372 Russian SMEs that were approached between August and November 2019.

The authors found support for the positive relationship between SEBs and SME performance. Additionally, the authors found that CEO narcissism and Machiavellianism strengthen the relationship between SEBs and firm performance.

This study is an important step toward enriching the understanding of the role of CEO personality traits in shaping the efficiency of entrepreneurial behavior at the firm level. Extending previous research, the authors show that SEBs have a positive effect on firm performance in an emerging market context. Additionally, the authors contribute insight about how personality characteristics of CEOs, specifically narcissism and Machiavellianism, influence the relationship between entrepreneurial behavior and firm performance. Finally, the authors’ research contributes to the development of strategic leadership theory: the results offer insight to scholars regarding the potentially beneficial attributes of otherwise “dark” leaders.

In December 2007, Sergey Nikolaev, founder and CEO of the Untsiya company, a tea shop chain in St. Petersburg, Russia, was facing a major decision about the future of his company: should he diversify the business or focus solely on tea sales via exclusive shops? Founded in 2002, the Untsiya Company had enjoyed dramatic growth and great success in the St. Petersburg market. By 2007, having directed the successful roll-out of his tea shop chain, Nikolaev wanted to grow to the next level and was prepared to revise his corporate strategy, even to the extent of changing his existing, stable organizational structure. Students are challenged to select a growth strategy and related organizational changes to implement that strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the ability of Russian firms to develop strategic entrepreneurship (SE) as a source of sustainable competitive advantage in a turbulent and hostile business environment. It aims to suggest a model of SE that includes two components – exploration and exploitation – and to test this model on 500 Russian small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) which show the influence of these components on firm performance. It also aims to address one of the most fundamental questions confronting the international business (IB) field: “What determines the success and failure of firms around the world?”.

The paper presents empirical research with a regression analysis of 500 Russian SMEs operating in Moscow and St Petersburg in three major industries: information technologies and communications (ICT), hotels, restaurants, and cafes (HoReCa) and wholesale/retail.

The Russian firms show a positive influence of exploration and exploitation on firm performance. Moreover, the influence of specific elements of exploration and exploitation was analyzed and entrepreneurial values, investments in internal resources, knowledge management and developmental changes were determined to be significant factors constituting SE and having a positive relationship with firm performance.

The research is limited by its sample, which includes only three industries and the number of dependent variables tested. Further research can focus on other performance indicators, industries and different settings.

The paper contributes to the existing literature on entrepreneurship and IB in two ways. The theoretical contribution in entrepreneurship literature is linked to development and testing of the SE model. It also contributes to IB literature by proposing that SE is one of the possible sources for creating a successful firm in an emerging economy context such as in Russia.

The purpose of this paper is to discover factors of new ventures performance in Russia and to combine them in a model which describes the influence of these factors on the performance of a new venture.

A cross‐sectional study of new ventures was conducted by a field survey in six regions in Russia. One‐factor variance analysis and regression analysis were used to identify significant factors.

Three groups of factors were identified as significantly influencing performance of new ventures in Russia: environmental factors, style of management and type of strategic behaviour. For environmental factors the following variables were included: crisis in industry, increase in product demand, predictability of regulatory authorities behaviour, predictability of financial markets, and environmental hostility. For company management style, several variables were statistically significant: level of centralization, concentration of management in the hands of the founder, and role of the middle management. For strategic behaviour, only the strategy of prospector in terms of Miles and Snow was found to have significant influence on the new venture performance (NVP).

The research ignores industry specifics that may be reflected in different new ventures performance factors.

Entrepreneurs starting new ventures in Russia should take into account the identified factors which can influence their companies’ performance.

Although there have been many studies on NVP factors, no such research has been performed in Russia.

The purpose of this paper is to bring together a strategic choice perspective and an institutional perspective in order to address the key research questions: how do Russian founder-CEOs perceive the institutional environment when succession issues are taken into consideration?; how do the perceived characteristics of different formal and informal institutions affect the founder-CEO’s decision to delegate authority to a professional CEO?; and what are the main barriers to founder-CEO succession in threshold firms in emerging markets such as Russia?

Using a data set of 500 entrepreneurial companies from fast growing industries in Russia, the paper defines and studies threshold firms and analyses how various perceived characteristics of the institutional environment in emerging markets influence the likelihood of transition from founder management to professional management.

Institutional factors such as poor security of property rights and dependence of the business on relationships with government officials have a negative impact on the likelihood of founder-CEO succession in threshold firms in emerging markets. At the same time, the perception of contract law as insecure increases the likelihood of transition from founder management to professional management.

Most research on initial succession deals with internal organisational factors and does not consider external environments and their influence on founder-CEO departure and willingness to exit from company management. This study is unique in its focus on the external environment and institutional factors and their impact on management transitions in threshold firms in emerging economies.