Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/327067 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Citation: 
[Journal:] BRQ Business Research Quarterly [ISSN:] 2340-9444 [Volume:] 28 [Issue:] 1 [Year:] 2025 [Pages:] 252-264
Publisher: 
Sage Publishing, London
Abstract: 
Some studies have provided empirical evidence that firms' high growth rates just before economic crises are negatively associated with resilience. Other authors have observed that firms that grow fast in the early phases of an external crisis are generally more resilient. This countercyclical behavior is less common in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and literature has not delved into the underlying factors that facilitate SMEs' countercyclical strategies. Firm exploration is defined as a firm's willingness to experiment, take risks, be flexible, and accept variation. Our thesis is that exploration acts as a countercyclical factor by slowing down a firm's growth before the external shock takes effect, favoring growth during the crisis, and providing better resilience outcomes. We find support for our hypotheses from a sample of 2,081 manufacturing medium-sized enterprises.
Subjects: 
Resilience
crisis
SMEs
exploration
JEL: 
M10
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by-nc Logo
Document Type: 
Article

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