Abstract This article analyzes the (formal and informal) role of control mechanisms in fostering (proactive and reactive) organizational resilience of financial technology startups (fintechs), considering the moderating effect of environmental unpredictability. First, there is little evidence on formal and informal control mechanisms in the context of organizational resilience. Second, studies on management controls focus on some resilience approaches, however, they do not address resilience from a proactive and reactive perspective. Third, the literature on the effects of environmental unpredictability on contemporary organizations, like the fintechs, is still scarce. On the one hand, new evidence is added to the literature on management control and organizational resilience, the understanding of antecedents of resilience in startups is expanded, and insights are provided on the effects of environmental unpredictability on the alignment of management controls and objects of control. On the other hand, insights are provided on control mechanisms that fintechs can benefit from to building organizational resilience, both to anticipate and prepare and to act and formulate responses in the face of business disruptions and uncertain times. The findings benefit the building and strengthening of resilience in fintechs, which becomes key for these startups to survive and consolidate themselves in the financial market. Data have been collected by survey and analyzed through structural equation modeling. Additional investigation has been conducted via fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. The main results reveal that: (i) formal and informal control mechanisms foster proactive and reactive organizational resilience; (ii) in scenarios of high environmental unpredictability, greater attention given to informal controls results in higher proactive resilience levels; and (iii) there are four (five) organizational configurations that lead fintechs to high proactive (reactive) resilience.

Resumo Este artigo analisa o papel de mecanismos de controle (formais e informais) no fomento à resiliência organizacional (proativa e reativa) de startups de tecnologia financeira (fintechs), considerando o efeito moderador da imprevisibilidade ambiental. Primeiro, existem poucas evidências sobre mecanismos de controle formais e informais no âmbito da resiliência organizacional. Segundo, os estudos de controles gerenciais enfocam algumas abordagens de resiliência, porém, não abordam a resiliência sobre a ótica proativa e reativa. Terceiro, a literatura sobre os efeitos da imprevisibilidade ambiental em organizações contemporâneas, como as fintechs, ainda é limitada. Por um lado, acrescentam-se novas evidências para a literatura de controle gerencial e resiliência organizacional, amplia-se o entendimento de antecedentes da resiliência em startups e proporcionam-se insights sobre os efeitos da imprevisibilidade ambiental no alinhamento entre controles gerenciais e objetos de controle. Por outro lado, são fornecidos insights de mecanismos de controle que as fintechs podem se beneficiar para desenvolver resiliência organizacional, tanto para antecipar e se preparar quanto para agir e apresentar respostas diante de interrupções nos negócios e momentos incertos. Os achados beneficiam a construção e desenvolvimento da resiliência em fintechs, o que se torna vital para que essas startups consigam sobreviver e consolidar-se no mercado financeiro. Os dados foram coletados por survey e analisados a partir de modelagem de equações estruturais. Uma análise adicional foi conduzida via análise qualitativa comparativa de conjuntos difusos (em inglês, fuzzy set). Os principais resultados revelam que: (i) mecanismos de controle formais e informais fomentam a resiliência organizacional proativa e reativa; (ii) em cenários de alta imprevisibilidade ambiental, maior atenção dedicada aos controles informais resulta em maiores níveis de resiliência proativa; e (iii) existem quatro (cinco) configurações organizacionais que levam as fintechs a alta resiliência proativa (reativa).

Abstract The evolution of Web 2.0 technologies and social media has changed the way online business is conducted. With increasingly popular social networks, the connections among Internet users emerge as an important source of information, allowing consumers to share their ideas, opinions, or even content on the web, in order to find better and cheaper products, originating a new type of electronic commerce, known as social commerce (s-commerce). In this context, price and trust stand out as two important factors influencing the decision to buy online. Thus, we aimed to analyze the effects of trust and competitive price on the purchase intention of Brazilian consumers in s-commerce. Through a survey conducted with 160 online consumers, we identified trust as the main predictor of consumer purchase intention in s-commerce followed by competitive prices. We also indicated a set of important antecedents of trust in the context of s-commerce. The study contributes to the literature surrounding the effects of competitive price and trust - and its antecedents - as important factors that influence the intention to buy in s-commerce, providing managers with some key elements they can use to improve their firm’s competitiveness in this new business environment.