Organizational resilience in student led entrepreneurship societies
Chheda, Moksh (2025)
Pro gradu -tutkielma
2025
School of Business and Management, Kauppatieteet
Kaikki oikeudet pidätetään.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe202601061449
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe202601061449
Tiivistelmä
This research explores how student established entrepreneurship societies develop and adapt through disruption with the lens of organizational resilience in respect to dynamic academic and socio-economic environment. The continuity of student led organisations is frequently challenged by internal factors like leadership turnover, governance constraints or external stressors like funding and resource volatility, despite these societies playing a crucial role in fostering the nature of entrepreneurship in students. The knowledge of organisational resilience of student led entrepreneurship societies remains limited in existing research.
Aiming to address this same gap, the research adopts a multiple case research design using qualitative method and an abductive approach. Six student led entrepreneurship societies in Finland were selected as cases and empirical data was obtained via 22 semi structured interviews from current and former members. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data across the cases, which was followed and guided by a three-stage resilience framework consisting of anticipation, coping and adaptation.
The findings revealed that resilience is highly dynamic in entrepreneurship societies which are student led, and thus the resilience is built through repeated organisational practices and mechanisms. Codified documents, annual calendars and governance boundaries reduce uncertainty and add to the factor of anticipatory mechanisms. Coping mechanisms such as alumni involvement and distributed leadership enable societies to manage challenges inreal time. Knowledge transfer across continuing leaders, refined decision making process add to the institutional learning and knowledge of the society, which translates to adaptive mechanisms.
The study reveals that to enable continuity, and evolve to the dynamic environments, organisational resilience is one of the key factors that equip student led entrepreneurship societies to do so. The findings also contribute to the literature of entrepreneurship andorganisational resilience through empirical insights in respect to operationalisation of resilience in student led organisations.
Aiming to address this same gap, the research adopts a multiple case research design using qualitative method and an abductive approach. Six student led entrepreneurship societies in Finland were selected as cases and empirical data was obtained via 22 semi structured interviews from current and former members. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data across the cases, which was followed and guided by a three-stage resilience framework consisting of anticipation, coping and adaptation.
The findings revealed that resilience is highly dynamic in entrepreneurship societies which are student led, and thus the resilience is built through repeated organisational practices and mechanisms. Codified documents, annual calendars and governance boundaries reduce uncertainty and add to the factor of anticipatory mechanisms. Coping mechanisms such as alumni involvement and distributed leadership enable societies to manage challenges inreal time. Knowledge transfer across continuing leaders, refined decision making process add to the institutional learning and knowledge of the society, which translates to adaptive mechanisms.
The study reveals that to enable continuity, and evolve to the dynamic environments, organisational resilience is one of the key factors that equip student led entrepreneurship societies to do so. The findings also contribute to the literature of entrepreneurship andorganisational resilience through empirical insights in respect to operationalisation of resilience in student led organisations.