From Fear to Resilience: An Inquiry into East African Innovations during the Covid-19 Pandemic

In this paper, we explore two popular medically-inspired innovations in Kenya and Tanzania during the Covid-19 pandemic to illustrate how a newly identified infective agent triggered collective, top-down, targeted, and repurposed innovations in the East African context. We point out the key determinants in the development and adoption of new approaches during the Covid-19 crisis and illuminate the collective processes of emotional regulation and social support that led to collective adaptation and ultimately, resilience. Our findings contribute to the growing body of literature on entrepreneurial resilience.