Changing the Rules of the Game: The Role of Antifragility in the Survival of Innovative Start-Ups

During Covid-19, some innovative start-ups not only absorbed the shock but also improved afterwards through the development of capabilities related to antifragility. Drawing on the antifragility literature we have selected a set of internal capabilities that influence the survival of start-ups. Then, we applied qualitative benchmarking of the fuzzy-set to examine which interactions between the aforementioned internal capabilities affect the survival of innovative start-ups. We used a unique dataset of 37 innovative start-ups that survived in Italy after the Covid-19 lockdown. Our results suggest the interaction between some specific capabilities (creativity, flexibility and collaboration) are antecedents of antifragility. The interaction between these capabilities enables start-ups to survive during a crisis.