Recovery paths after crisis: risk intelligence as antecedent of entrepreneurs’ resilience

In recent years, markets have been hit by various crises, both economically and naturally. These shocks have highlighted how important it is for companies to be able to adapt with resilient behaviors. Entrepreneurs and their resilience capacity will play a very important role in the recovery process. Resilience is closely linked to other abilities such as risk intelligence; that is, the ability to look at uncertainty as an opportunity rather than a disadvantage or danger. The study assesses the relationship between these two constructs using a sample of entrepreneurs in the tourism sector within Italy. Analysis confirmed a relationship between subjective risk intelligence and resilience. These relations are explained by taking into consideration four aspects (imaginative capacity, problem-solving self-efficacy, attitude toward uncertainty and emotional stress management) included in risk intelligence, highlighting which of them contributed to explaining the three dimensions of the resilience construct (hardiness, resourcefulness and optimism).