Causal Configurations of SME Strategic Renewal in Crisis: Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) of Quebec Entrepreneurs amid COVID-19

In times of crisis, SME entrepreneurs refresh and replace corporate resources and capabilities in the strategic renewal processes to sustain organizational resilience. Appearing in the form of internal development and external sourcing, the strategic renewal outcomes are explained by the synergy of individual, organizational and environmental-level factors that build up SMEs' dynamic capabilities. This research presents a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) of the conjunctural causality between multi-level dynamic capabilities configurations and SME strategic renewal outcomes. Based on the survey data of SMEs in Laval, Quebec amid COVID-19 pandemic, we find that entrepreneurs' constraint awareness and partnership willingness are not the necessary conditions of strategic renewal. Complementarily, the individual-level microfoundation of dynamic capabilities must be combined with the organizational and environmental context to explain the strategic renewal outcomes. Specifically, we identify complex organizational processes, global connectivity, and government partnership as supplementary core conditions to explain SME strategic renewal in crisis.