A crisis is a highly unexpected or unpredictable event that may result in business closure, downscaling of business and loss of resources and requires an immediate response (Doern et al., 2019). Of the many crises, two main events impacted entrepreneurial businesses globally: the financial crisis in late 2007 and early 2008 (Kose & Ohnsorge, 2021) and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 (Kuckertz et al., 2020). Just like the global crisis affected employment and financial access by SMEs, COVID-19 was expected to have similar effects (Kuckertz et al., 2020; Rajagopaul et al., 2020). Therefore, reviewing global financial crisis literature is crucial, as it informs crisis management literature, the foundation from which the COVID-19 response strategies are derived.

Research on how entrepreneurs coped with the global crisis showed that many companies did not have formalised approaches to managing the crisis (Herbane, 2010; Wilson & Eilertsen, 2010). As per Herbane (2010), managers had significant aspirations but were unclear about their resourcing efforts to improve their businesses and achieve superior performance over their competitors. The managers’ interest was to protect what they had, such as intellectual property. Similarly, Wilson and Eilertsen (2010) found that most managers in various United States organisations were unprepared for the crisis. These studies showed that some crisis management strategies were proactive, while others were more passive. Organisations proactively identified investment opportunities and defensive strategies to reduce costs to survive the crisis.

The insights from the global financial crisis showed that management of the COVID-19 crisis could require proactive and reactive strategies. The COVID-19 crisis differed from the global financial crisis in the enforced national lockdown meant to minimise the movement of people and the restrictions on non-essential business operations to curb the spread of the virus. The business restrictions affected businesses differently, thus requiring different response strategies. These challenges brought on by the pandemic’s regulations made entrepreneurs think differently about their businesses and how to derive strategies for survival (Kuckertz et al., 2020; Manolova et al., 2020). In South Africa, business survival is challenged by inadequate resources and ineffective entrepreneurial framework conditions that support entrepreneurial activities (Bowmaker-Falconer & Meyer, 2020). Therefore, this study provides insights into how entrepreneurs operating within a context with limited entrepreneurial resources survived the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study’s research question concerns how entrepreneurs’ resourcing actions influence their business model adaptation during a crisis, especially in resource-constrained environments. Among many crisis management approaches, such as contingency planning (Smith, 1990), crisis management as a practice (Fasth et al., 2022) and crisis management as sequential phases (Williams et al., 2017), this study focuses on theoretical framework suitable for entrepreneurial action under conditions of uncertainty and resource constraints. Therefore, this research study uses the bricolage theory (inspired by Lévi-Strauss, 1966) to explore entrepreneurs’ resourcing actions during a crisis (Baker & Nelson, 2005).

Bricolage assumes that a resource-constrained entrepreneur’s response is repurposing resources to solve new problems and opportunities (Baker & Nelson, 2005). The theory is based on three principles: making do, combining resources for new purposes and the resources at hand. Making do is taking action to solve problems with resources at hand (Baker & Nelson, 2005, p. 334). Combining resources for new purposes is about bringing together and reusing resources for a different application than their original use. Resources at hand are physical artefacts, skills and capabilities that may be helpful when there is resource scarcity. As crisis significantly constrains entrepreneurs’ resources, the bricolage principles can help this study elucidate how entrepreneurs take resourcing actions to find new solutions that contribute to the business’ sustainable survival during and after a crisis.

COVID-19 made entrepreneurial firms’ business models the centre of their survival (Manolova et al., 2020). A business model shows the organisation’s activities that create and deliver value to its customers (Denoo et al., 2022). The alignment of the business model as a response to the changing environment is called business model adaptation (Denoo et al., 2022). Research on business model adaptation to manage COVID-19 has focused on firm-level strategies without explicitly stating the entrepreneurs’ role, thus adopting a micro- or macro-level focus (Newman et al., 2022). The firm-level strategies focus on employees, new product offerings and value propositions, cost-cutting measures, marketing, revenue focus and innovation focus (Kuckertz et al., 2020; Manolova et al., 2020; Thorgren & Williams, 2020). Therefore, this study explores how entrepreneurs’ resourcing actions influence their business model adaptation during crises.

This narrative, qualitative research explored how entrepreneurs’ resourcing actions influence business model adaptation during a crisis, especially in resource-constrained environments. The purpose of the design was to allow entrepreneurs to narrate their stories and construct the meaning of the resourcing actions during a crisis. The unit of analysis for this study was entrepreneurs’ resourcing actions. The purposive sampling strategy was used to select 15 participants (see Table 1) against the set criteria. Of the 15 participants, 12 were the main units of data collection, while three were used for triangulation and validation of the findings. Saunders and Lewis (2018) argued that saturation starts to manifest around a sample of 12 participants. The sampling criteria of the participants were based on location, race, small business definition, business duration, industry and continuity during the crisis.

Data were gathered using online semi-structured interviews. A semi-structured interview guide was created based on the three elements of bricolage theory (making do, resources at hand and combination of existing resources for new purposes) and related literature to guide the interview process. The interview guide covered themes on entrepreneurial crisis context (Kuckertz et al., 2020), bricolage behaviours, resourcing actions and the utilisation of resources for business model adaptation (Baker & Nelson, 2005; Kuckertz et al., 2020; Thorgren & Williams, 2020). The interview guide had open-ended questions to facilitate an open conversation.

The participants signed a consent form before the interviews could begin and gave permission to record the semi-structured online interviews. The structure of the interviews was flexible, allowing a natural flow between questions (Saunders & Lewis, 2018). As the data collection continued, new insights from the interviews were explored in subsequent interviews. The interviews lasted approximately 45 min.

The recorded interviews were transcribed and quality-checked to ensure they reflected the interview discussions. These data were analysed using computer-aided qualitative data analysis software that helped organise chunks of data and audit trails (Saunders & Lewis, 2018). A thematic narrative analysis was applied to analyse the ‘what of the data,’ rather than how the story was told (Maitlis, 2012). As per Table 2, the narrative thematic analysis occurred in three steps (Maitlis, 2012).

Firstly, open coding was utilised to create first-order and in vivo codes for codes identified using participants’ words. Secondly, first-order codes with similar meanings were grouped into second-order codes, such as assessing human capital constraints, entrepreneurial pivoting, engaging external stakeholders and product diversification. Thirdly, aggregate themes were identified from the second-order codes, including sense-making of the resource constraints, leveraging the entrepreneurs’ resourceful behaviours, maximising stakeholder relationship resources and business model adaptation. The developed themes were compared among the participants. In the last stages of data analysis, the aggregate themes were compared against existing literature.

Data quality was ensured using three strategies. Firstly, the data were triangulated by interviewing three black African entrepreneurs based in Gauteng. The findings did not reveal significant differences across participants. Secondly, dependability was ensured using a systematic coding process that showed how the aggregate themes were formulated. Thirdly, authenticity was demonstrated by including quotations to support the study’s findings.

Similar to Van Heerden and Roos (2021), this research shows that entrepreneurial businesses experienced a sudden decline in turnover and customer numbers, limited access to employees on office premises, travel restrictions and supply chain challenges because of the crisis. These constraints were identified as part of the entrepreneurs’ sense-making. Contrary to the studies on the business model that generally focus on business-level interventions without analysing entrepreneurs’ specific actions (Belitski et al., 2022; Kuckertz et al., 2020), this research shows sense-making is an essential action step before the allocation of resources and business model adaptation. Building on the work of Hoyte et al. (2019) on sense-making in venture creation, this study’s findings demonstrate how entrepreneurs tried to understand the resource constraints while engaging in the social construction or reframing of their resource scarcity. Based on this study’s findings, the argument is that sense-making is a critical component that directs resourcing actions as entrepreneurs navigate a crisis. Thus, sense-making helped the entrepreneurs determine whether they could rely on their capabilities (self-reliant bricolage behaviours) or seek resources from other stakeholders (joint bricolage).

The study demonstrates that self-reliant entrepreneurial bricolage behaviours and actions are the primary resources for managing the crisis. The self-reliant bricolage focuses on entrepreneurs’ behaviours, which are their resources. Unlike Thorgren and Williams (2020), who stated that a small percentage of firms are passive and do not do anything, this study demonstrates entrepreneurs had to adopt a positive emotional outlook, act swiftly, and pivot and learn as part of their entrepreneurial actions. Their ability to act speedily aligns with Fisher et al. (2020), suggesting that entrepreneurs have the urgency to act fast, demonstrate creativity and address opportunities and challenges during uncertainty. According to Baker and Nelson (2005), working swiftly and pivoting are ways of making do with what entrepreneurs have at hand.

All participants mentioned having no experience managing exogenous crises like COVID-19 and having to rely on their positive outlook and faith in their capabilities. These findings confirm the element of effectuation (Sarasvathy, 2001) and entrepreneurs’ positive psychological capital (Baluku et al., 2018). In addition, entrepreneurs’ openness to learning and unlearning during the crisis was a vital resource that helped them adapt their business model. In sum, this study shows that entrepreneurs would exploit their resource endowments before seeking help from stakeholders to adapt the business model.

The findings showed that entrepreneurs relied on stakeholder relationships that included employees as internal partners, customers, suppliers, institutional support and competitors. Some participants had to support their employees and provide full salaries. Unlike Thorgren and Williams (2020), who highlighted some of the immediate actions included reducing labour costs, this study shows entrepreneurs’ immediate response was to maintain employees’ jobs and salaries to motivate them to remain in the business. Expanding on Baker and Nelson (2005), the findings show that entrepreneurs maximise the external stakeholder relationship when the internal resources are inadequate. Surprisingly, the entrepreneurs also explored and utilised the resources at hand by collaborating with competitors and suppliers. This finding aligns with the Sarasvathy (2001) effectuation assumption that effectual entrepreneurs focus on coopetition rather than competition. This shows that effectuation mechanisms explain how the bricoleur acts on the collaboration resources, meaning that bricolage and effectuation are not mutually exclusive.

The findings show entrepreneurs’ influence on business model adaptation. Entrepreneurs’ actions, sense-making, self-reliant bricolage and joint bricolage are essential antecedents of business model adaptation. These findings extend existing research on business model adaptation in crises without exploring the entrepreneurs’ role (Belitski et al., 2022; Kuckertz et al., 2020; Newman et al., 2022). Like other studies (Fisher et al., 2020), this study reveals that SMEs pursued growth opportunities during the crisis by introducing new and diversified products and services, expanding into new markets, managing costs, e-commerce, virtual platforms and customer segments. However, introducing new products was impossible for all sectors, showing selective bricolage influencing what entrepreneurs can or cannot do (Baker & Nelson, 2005). Those in manufacturing explained that their processes were complex, making modifying existing products or creating new products difficult. These findings use a different lens to that of Thorgren and Williams (2020), who stated that some entrepreneurs are passive and do not take action, while this study’s entrepreneurs were willing to change but were restricted by technical processes.

As this study was conducted towards the end of the pandemic, it shows how the management of costs unfolded, extending the work of Kuckertz et al. (2020) and Thorgren and Williams (2020). The study reveals that entrepreneurs were reluctant to reduce employee numbers at the beginning of the crisis based on the personal bonds they shared. As the pandemic progressed and businesses were severely affected, cost-containment measures included taking advantage of payment holidays from financiers, requesting extended payment terms from suppliers and reducing fixed costs, such as rent and salaries. The prolonged crisis made other entrepreneurs accept the financial challenges and retrench some employees. These findings explain why a study by Thorgren and Williams (2020) at the beginning of the pandemic found that entrepreneurs were reluctant to delay payments and apply for loans. As the pandemic continued, businesses experienced severe financial challenges and were more accepting of looking for additional capital resources for survival. Kwong et al. (2019) reported similar findings, where Pakistani entrepreneurs relied on external funding, such as loans, when internal financial resources were depleted. Lastly, similar to Kuckertz et al. (2020), the findings of this study show that the government was able to provide financial assistance to entrepreneurs to some extent.