To reopen or not to reopen? How entrepreneurial alertness influences small business reopening after the COVID-19 lockdown

COVID-19 lockdowns have been effective in curbing the spread of the virus and saving lives. Government-imposed restrictions and lockdowns have required that businesses close temporarily. While many businesses survived in lockdown, others, particularly small businesses, did not, or were not able to reopen when the lockdowns were relaxed. We sought to study the phenomenon of small businesses still being squeezed and explore the internal drivers for their reopening after the lockdowns. We collected two-wave data from 303 small businesses in China during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Our findings indicated that entrepreneurs with higher level of alertness were less likely to reopen their businesses after the lockdowns were lifted. In addition, the negative relationship between alertness and reopening was attenuated for older firms. Our findings underscore the role of entrepreneurs’ cognitive characteristic in determining the reopening of businesses during the pandemic.