Crisis or creative breakthrough? A Qualitative Study Situating the COVID-19 Pandemic Within Crisis Management Theory Through the Lens of Creative Entrepreneurs in the Digital Age

The COVID-19 virus has affected society on a global scale and has tremendously impacted all aspects of human life which constructs the identification of COVID-19 as a global crisis. This crisis influenced the creative industries and entrepreneurs significantly, through which a need came into existence to better understand the impact on strategic practices of crisis management whilst simultaneously acknowledging the importance of the digital age. Therefore, this research tackles the following question: How do creative entrepreneurs in the Netherlands manage strategically during the COVID-19 crisis and how does COVID-19 change the understanding of crisis management theory during the digital age? Using an inductive qualitative process, in-depth interviews were held with creative entrepreneurs working in the Netherlands. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach for data analysis, different themes were found that led to the answer to the research question. Overall, creative entrepreneurs in the Netherlands can manage strategically during the COVID-19 crisis by acknowledging important elements in strategic preparation, adaptation, and prevention. The actions that follow this acknowledgement of strategic practices are continuously influenced by the entrepreneurial identity of a creative entrepreneur and their industry perception. COVID-19 changes the understanding of crisis management theory as it showed the extreme importance of mental health during this “social crisis” caused by the essence of digitization of internal and external communication. Currently, this finding lacks presence in contemporary crisis management literature. Furthermore, the importance of digitization during COVID-19 showed contrasting perspectives of actions taken during the crisis regarding online development. On the one hand, creative entrepreneurs focused on optimizing online internal and external relations and found a need for online branding and findability and showed creative breakthroughs online. On the other hand, their online behaviour, specifically their social media strategy, was not affected.