Venture resilience, criminal approaches and the welfare state: entrepreneurial decisions and opinions one year after the COVID-19 outbreak

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the resilience of Italian companies one year after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak by examining the companies’ choices and opinions regarding the welfare state, criminal approaches and mergers and acquisitions (M&As) during the pandemic. Design/methodology/approach – The authors proposed a conceptual framework based on a combination of private vs public protection and business resilience theory and adopted a concurrent embedded mixed method approach, using an online survey of 219 entrepreneurs. Findings – The authors find the respondents showing high resilience to the crisis and strongly unaffected by organised crime’s (OC’s) predatory role; the State seems to have quickly and effectively met the financial needs of sampled Italian companies, at least in the short term. Practical implications – Whilst welfare can be highly effective for companies to combat crime, regulators should recognise that public protection may decrease with time, leaving companies open to long-term challenges. Originality/value – The authors believe that our study makes a significant contribution to the entrepreneurship literature because this is the first study to explore how entrepreneurs deal with financing problems in a context characterised by a strong impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and OC pressure.