This article analyses the relationship between the experience of a crisis and advice seeking in small firms. Although the benefits of business advice and support to smaller firms are well documented, smaller firms are often reluctant to seek external advice, relying instead on informal routines and a focus on daily operations. Conceptualising crisis as a trigger for advice seeking, and using survey data from 2089 small firms, we find a strong and significant relationship between experiencing a crisis and seeking external business advice up to 5 years after the crisis. This sustained effect on advice seeking is particularly strong for firms who also sought advice at the time of the crisis. Additionally, we find that the effect of a business crisis on sustained advice seeking is stronger for firms subject to a crisis with external origins.

本文分析了危机经历与小公司寻求建议之间的关系。尽管商业建议和支持对小公司的好处有据可查，但小公司通常不愿意寻求外部建议，而是依赖非正式的例行程序和专注于日常运营。将危机概念化为寻求建议的触发因素，并使用来自 2089 家小公司的调查数据，我们发现在危机发生后长达 5 年内，经历危机与寻求外部业务建议之间存在强大而重要的关系。这种对寻求建议的持续影响对于在危机期间也寻求建议的公司来说尤其强烈。此外，我们发现，对于遭受外部危机的公司来说，商业危机对持续寻求建议的影响更大。