The Mediating Role of Resource Availability and Allocation in Strengthening the Relationship of Change Strategies in the Growth and Development of Entrepreneurial Projects after Covid 19

Abstract

With limited contemporary examinations investigating interactions between change management strategies and startups and entrepreneurial ventures’ growth and development, judgements are bound to be clouded. As a result, the study’s main objective is to identify the key challenges faced by startups and entrepreneurial ventures in response to the post-pandemic business landscape. The study is important for providing valuable insights into successful change management practices, offering practical recommendations for business leaders, and contributing to the understanding of post-pandemic resilience and adaptation in the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. The study formulated 8 hypotheses linking digital transformation, customer-centric, financial restructuring and resource optimization, and resource availability and allocation change management approaches with the growth and development of startups and entrepreneurial ventures. A quantitative method involving a Structural Equation Modelling approach was applied to 326 clustered survey responses collected from CEOs, general managers, finance managers, human resources managers, change management leaders and employees and team members of start-ups and entrepreneurial ventures in Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. According to the findings, digital transformation significantly enhances resource availability and allocation, and growth and development. While customer-centricity may not directly affect resource availability and allocation post-Covid-19, the study concludes that a customer-centric mindset and strategy remain critical to business resilience. Most importantly, financial restructuring and resource optimization positively and significantly affect resource availability and allocation, as well as growth and development. Lastly, the study upholds that resource availability and allocation’s mediating effects are not valid within the context of startups and entrepreneurial ventures in the post-pandemic business landscape.