Abstract:

The entrepreneurial journey, characterized by uncertainty and risk, poses challenges to startups, impacting the outcomes of invested resources and potentially resulting in losses. Successful entrepreneurial initiatives emphasize the significance of studying resource restructuring in the face of losses for the development of new ventures. However, diverse growth trajectories are observed among startups following resource restructuring. A critical analysis of existing research reveals that resource evolution, characterized by bricolage and optimization, is pivotal in understanding the challenges associated with resource restructuring. Therefore, elucidating the influencing factors and mechanisms of resource evolution holds vital importance for startups coping with resource losses.

Despite the growing emphasis on the role of resource evolution in academia, there is a scarcity of research specifically addressing loss scenarios in the entrepreneurial domain. Furthermore, discussions on the essential preconditions, triggering mechanisms, primary pathways, and effectual mechanisms of resource evolution are notably lacking. Regarding the antecedent factors influencing resource evolution, existing research predominantly focuses on organizational and environmental factors, neglecting the cognitive processes behind entrepreneurs' adoption of resource evolution behaviors. This study explores the relationship between entrepreneurs' resource loss-induced evolution behaviors and their underlying cognitive processes. The introduction of resource-induced coping heuristics as a cognitive characteristic of entrepreneurs examines the different resource evolution behaviors exhibited during the process of opportunity development, constructing a comprehensive theoretical model of the resource evolution process. This not only deepens the understanding of the role played by resource-induced coping heuristics as an explanatory mechanism for resource evolution paths but also broadens the impact boundaries and applicability of the resource evolution process from a cognitive perspective.

For the effect mechanism of resource evolution, under similar cognitive logics, different boundary conditions can influence the outcomes of resource evolution behaviors for new startups. The exploration of boundary conditions for resource evolution effects is still in its early stages, primarily focusing on the moderating role of the environment. However, there is a lack of further deconstruction of environmental dimensions in related research. This study investigates the moderating effects of external environmental dynamism and abundance on the relationship between resource evolution behaviors and post-loss performance through a combined approach of questionnaire surveys and secondary data coding. Furthermore, as entrepreneurial behaviors are argued to be determined by the interpretations of the entrepreneurial team about the environment, the study suggests that the shared cognition at different levels within the entrepreneurial team plays a moderating role in the relationship between bricolage and post-loss performance. Hence, this research posits that team members' cognitive processing of knowledge and information also influences the effects of resource evolution behaviors. The introduction of the team transactive memory system, a shared cognition achieved through encoding, storing, and retrieving information and knowledge across different domains, examines its role in the relationship between resource evolution and post-loss performance. The study evaluates the impact of the team transactive memory system based on its expertise, reliability, and coordination dimensions, employing a combined approach of questionnaire surveys and secondary data coding to explore its role in the relationship between resource evolution and post-loss performance.

In conclusion, this study systematically reveals the law of resource evolution of new ventures under the situation of loss, and constructs a theoretical model under the guidance of the logical line of "cognition-behavior-result". The research mainly focuses on two issues: "How to carry out resource evolution under loss situation" and "How to play a role in resource evolution under loss situation". The specific contents are as follows: Study one identifies the main path of resource evolution under loss situation driven by entrepreneur resource-induced coping heuristics, excavates the resource evolution process under different types of opportunity development, and clarifies the role of opportunity development in the process of resource evolution; Study two investigates the boundary conditions that affect the effect of resource evolution, and analyzes how to optimize the effect of resource evolution from the internal and external environment.

Key words: resource loss, bricolage, optimization, resource-induced coping heuristic, post-loss performance