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The COVID-19 crisis has introduced unique tradeoffs between health and economic risk, leading to a “life vs. livelihoods conundrum.” This study contributes to research on adversity and entrepreneurship by examining the implications of the pandemic for gender differences in enterprise performance. We further consider how public policy responses in the domains of public health and economic support moderate the potential gendered effects of the pandemic. Data analysis of more than 20,000 enterprises across 38 countries shows that women-owned enterprises were more adversely affected by the pandemic, and that stronger public health policy responses helped reduce the observed gap in performance.

Under weak market institutions, the positive association between group affiliation and firm performance has been empirically supported. However, the mechanisms behind this relationship remain unclear as business groups may create value for their affiliates via market and non-market strategies. We advance this discussion by leveraging an exogenous shock, namely the sudden government changes ignited by the Arab Spring, to examine: (a) whether business groups hold a competitive advantage in the political environment that enhances the performance of their affiliates and (b) which type of business groups provide that advantage to their affiliates. Our results suggest that the positive effect of group affiliation on performance is not only driven by groups’ capabilities to earn superior rents in the market environment as alluded in the literature, but also by their capabilities to earn greater influence rents compared to standalone firms in the political environment. This performance effect is stronger for affiliates of family than for non-family business groups, suggesting that political influence capabilities are heterogeneusly distributed across business group types.

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