Resourcefulness might not only help entrepreneurial ventures to sustain resource inflow when crises constrain their resource environments, but also enable them to deploy opportunities for resource mobilization that might emerge around coping with the consequences of the crises. However, as most studies emphasize either how entrepreneurial ventures can resourcefully overcome resource constraint or help society cope with crisis, we lack a profound understanding of how ventures can resourcefully deploy this mutuality. Building on a longitudinal, qualitative multiple case study across 17 entrepreneurial ventures during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, we identified that a temporary field emerged around the societal consequences of the crisis. Ventures who leveraged the temporary field resourcefully deployed the mutuality of resource constraint and opportunity by simultaneously engaging with both. In contrast, ventures who absorbed the temporary field foremost deployed opportunities for resource mobilization only within the temporary field and avoided constraint. While the former enabled entrepreneurial ventures to sustain resource inflow throughout the crisis, the latter did not. As our core contribution, we contribute a theoretical model that recognizes both—constraint and opportunity—to advance a more systematic understanding of how entrepreneurial ventures resourcefully navigate crises.
