Low-Income Entrepreneurs and Their Coping Strategies Using the Example of the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse coping strategies for dealing with the impact of crisis ('pivots') among low-income entrepreneurs living in a marriage/partnership using the example of the Covid-19 pandemic as a social and economic crisis. We draw on literature that critiques the individualised and masculine conception of entrepreneurship as focused on innovation and profit. Our analysis reveals the diversity of entrepreneurial strategies for coping with a pandemic. Low-income entrepreneurs living in a marriage or partnership interpret their choice of coping strategy primarily in reference to the non-economic aspects of this decision, as a way of legitimising why they do not choose pivots oriented towards business development in times of crisis. During the coping strategy analysis, we took into account the familial and socio-economic context and the business history of the low-income entrepreneur we surveyed. In this way, we show the processual nature of pivoting, in which responses to crises are not ad hoc decisions but are influenced by past experiences of business uncertainty.

Keywords

• pivoting
• covid-19
• gender
• czech republic