Exploring perceived post-disaster performance in micro-businesses: how does entrepreneur psychological resilience matter?

The paper investigates the resilience of micro-businesses (MBs) to natural disasters by exploring the impact of two levels of resilience, namely organizational resilience and entrepreneur psychological resilience, on perceived post-disaster business performance (PPDBP). As MBs tend to be entrepreneur-centric, entrepreneur psychological resilience (EPR) can play an important role, interconnected with that of organizational resilience (OR). However, in the extant literature the debate is still open on how OR and EPR relate. We verified a structural model with the aid of Upper Echelons and Imprinting theories, applying a covariance-based technique on data collected through a survey administered to a sample of 213 MBs hit by the 2012 Earthquake in Emilia (Italy). Results revealed that perceived post-disaster business performance is driven by entrepreneur psychological resilience with a mediating role for organizational resilience, in three main areas: robustness, agility and integrity. The study contributes to the literature on resilience and MBs by providing empirical evidence and practical implications.