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<p>Strategic autonomy, reflecting a firm’s autonomy in setting goals, enables the exploration and realization of business opportunities and may prove more critical in how a firm orchestrates its resources and capitalizes on them. However, the impact of strategic autonomy, as one of the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) dimensions, on firm performance remains understudied, especially during environmental shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This study, therefore, utilizes resource orchestration and threat-rigidity theories to examine the relationship between strategic autonomy, potential slack, and environmental dynamism on publicly listed small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) performance in the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a longitudinal, computer-aided text analysis (CATA) of shareholder letters from 170 publicly listed SMEs in Taiwan from 2018 to 2023, generating 991 firm-year observations, we found that autonomy surprisingly and negatively impacted performance during the pandemic. However, the interaction between autonomy and potential slack positively affected performance. Conversely, the interaction between autonomy and environmental dynamism harmed performance. Our study highlights the complex interplay between autonomy and the internal and external factors shaping SME performance during turbulent times.</p>

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Freedom isn’t free: strategic autonomy and financial performance of publicly listed small and medium-sized enterprises in the COVID-19 pandemic: a contingency model

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年5月12日

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  • Dexi Zheng,
  • Andy Yu,
  • Hsing-Er Lin,
  • Chia-Ying Li,
  • Chung-Hsuan Lee

摘要

Strategic autonomy, reflecting a firm’s autonomy in setting goals, enables the exploration and realization of business opportunities and may prove more critical in how a firm orchestrates its resources and capitalizes on them. However, the impact of strategic autonomy, as one of the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) dimensions, on firm performance remains understudied, especially during environmental shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This study, therefore, utilizes resource orchestration and threat-rigidity theories to examine the relationship between strategic autonomy, potential slack, and environmental dynamism on publicly listed small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) performance in the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a longitudinal, computer-aided text analysis (CATA) of shareholder letters from 170 publicly listed SMEs in Taiwan from 2018 to 2023, generating 991 firm-year observations, we found that autonomy surprisingly and negatively impacted performance during the pandemic. However, the interaction between autonomy and potential slack positively affected performance. Conversely, the interaction between autonomy and environmental dynamism harmed performance. Our study highlights the complex interplay between autonomy and the internal and external factors shaping SME performance during turbulent times.