Ewa Kopeć, M.Sc., Assistant, Ignatianum University in Kraków, ul. Kopernika 26, 31-501 Kraków, Poland, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Piotr Łasak, Ph.D. Hab., Associate Professor, Institute of Economics, Finance and Management, Jagiellonian University, ul. Prof. S. Łojasiewicza 4, 30-348 Kraków, Poland, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., corresponding author

Abstract

PURPOSE: The paper develops an integrative explanation of how firms, entrepreneurial ventures, employees, and investors sustain performance when uncertainty arises from market crises, technological change, cyber threats, fragmented institutions, financing constraints, and bounded rationality. METHODOLOGY: We conduct an integrative narrative synthesis of the six articles in this Issue and map their theoretical lenses, levels of analysis, methods, and findings into a cross-level framework, and future research directions. FINDINGS: We identify four interdependent domains of adaptive performance: resources and financing, human and behavioral capabilities, governance and risk architecture, and institutional and ecosystem embeddedness. Across the studies, access to finance and technology is enabling but not sufficient. Outcomes depend on how resources are converted through learning, managerial discipline, institutional connectivity, and context-appropriate risk measurement. Digitalization is simultaneously a source of efficiency and a source of cyber and organizational exposure. The studies also show that average effects conceal meaningful heterogeneity across regions, sectors, firm sizes, lifecycle stages, employee groups, and crisis types. IMPLICATIONS: Research should move from isolated determinants toward multilevel, longitudinal, and configurational designs. Managers and policymakers should align resources, capabilities, governance, and institutional support rather than optimize any single factor. ORIGINALITY & VALUE: The paper integrates employee readiness, entrepreneurial decision-making, innovation, startup financing, cybersecurity, and downside portfolio risk into a single adaptive-performance architecture and derives a focused research agenda.

Keywords: adaptive performance, operational efficiency, uncertainty, risk management, digital capabilities, cybersecurity, innovation, entrepreneurial finance, institutions, resilience