Disciplines of organizational resilience: contributions, critiques, and future research avenues

The role of management control and integrated information systems for the resilience of SMEs

This paper investigates the resilience of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the influence exerted by certain factors related to management control, integrated information systems (enterprise resource planning [ERP]), information and communication technology (ICT) systems, and financial resources. For this purpose, leveraging from the dynamic capability theory, in late spring 2020, a questionnaire was sent to limited-liability SMEs in Verona and Vicenza provinces in Italy operating in the manufacturing, construction, and distribution sectors. Respondents were asked to answer a set of questions and to evaluate the resilience of their firms as of January 1, 2020; May 1, 2020; and one year later, as of July 2021. Using a multivariate regression model to analyze data from the 143 questionnaires received, we found a positive influence of budgeting, business continuity tools, availability of supplementary financial resources, and resilience of the entrepreneur on both COVID-19 resilience and the organizational resilience of SMEs. SMEs with a high intention to use ERP systems also had high resilience levels. ICT use for smart working was not statistically significant. Despite the limitations concerning the sample and period considered, we believe that this study contributes to both academic debate, by illustrating the influence of certain managerial and organizational factors on the resilience of SMEs, and practice, by supporting a greater empirical use of management control tools, such as budgets and contingency plans, and integrated information systems (ERP). Our study supports the creation of financial buffers and strengthening the entrepreneur’s resilience for improving SME resilience.

Erfolgsdeterminanten agnotologischer Strategien im Wissensmanagement

Agnotologische Strategien bezwecken mittels Desinformation, Hacking, Cyberangriffen, Propaganda, Betrug, Gaslighting, Nudging, Überflutung, Zensur, selektiver Geheimhaltung oder Zugriffsbarrieren zu den Wissensinfrastrukturen den Abbau von Wissen und das Disabling von Entscheidungen der jeweiligen Targets. Manipulatoren wollen bei den Targets eine irreführende, intransparente und/oder lückenhafte Wissensbasis schaffen. Der Manipulationserfolg hängt entscheidend vom Strategieverbund und von der Resilienz der Targets ab.

Optimizing Decision Making on Business Processes Using a Combination of Process Mining, Job Shop, and Multivariate Resource Clustering

The current business environment has no room for inefficiency as it can cause companies to lose out to their competitors, to lose customer trust, and to experience cost overruns. Business processes within the company continue to grow and cause them to run more complex. The large scale and complexity of business processes pose a challenge in improving the quality of process model because the effectiveness of time and the efficiency of existing resources are the biggest challenges. In the context of optimizing business processes with a process mining approach, most current process models are optimized with a trace clustering approach to explore the model and to perform analysis on the resulting process model. Meanwhile, in the event log data, not only the activities but also the other resources, such as records of employee or staff working time, process service time, and processing costs, are recorded. This article proposes a mechanism alternative to optimize business processes by exploring the resources that occur in the process. The mechanism is carried out in three stages. The first stage is optimizing the job shop scheduling method from the generated event log. Scheduling the time becomes a problem in the job shop. Utilizing the right time can increase the effectiveness of performance in order to reduce costs. Scheduling can be defined as the allocation of multiple jobs in a series of machines, in which each machine only does one job at a time. In general, scheduling becomes a problem when sequencing the operations and allocating them into specific time slots without prolonging the technical and capacity constraints. The second stage is generating the resource value that is recorded in the event log from the results of analysis of the previous stage, namely, job shop scheduling. The resource values are multivariate and then clustered to determine homogeneous clusters. The last stage is optimizing the nonlinear multipolynomials in the homogeneous cluster formed by using the Hessian solution. The results obtained are analyzed to get recommendations on business processes that are appropriate for the company’s needs. The impact of long waiting times will increase service costs, but by improving workload, costs can be reduced. The process model and the value of service costs resulting from the mechanism in the research can be a reference for process owners in evaluating and improving ongoing processes.

Digitalization and entrepreneurial firms' resilience to pandemic crises: Evidence from COVID-19 and the German Mittelstand

While stressing the relevance of context, the organizational resilience literature has so far not extensively examined resilience in times of healthcare crises such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Parasite Stress Theory of Values suggests that such pandemic crises have detrimental impacts on entrepreneurial activity due to social distancing and its effects on interaction, collaboration, and innovation. However, alternatives to personal contact now available thanks to digitalization, have not yet been examined. We expect entrepreneurial firms with more digitalized business models to show higher resilience to pandemic crises, especially those highly affected by globalization and more for non-family businesses than for family businesses. Based on a survey of German Mittelstand firms in the midst of the crisis induced by COVID-19, our findings broadly support our expectations and thus help qualify the Parasite Stress Theory of Values and contribute to a better understanding of organizational resilience in times of pandemic crises.

Entrepreneurial mindfulness and organizational resilience of Chinese SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of entrepreneurial resilience

Organizational resilience is vital to the survival and thriving of enterprises, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although there has been an increasing interest in organizational resilience, the effects from the entrepreneur perspective receive scant attention. Based on upper echelons theory (UET) and personality psychology, we propose a model in which entrepreneurial mindfulness and entrepreneurial resilience could influence organizational resilience of SMEs. We empirically analyzed a sample of 180 entrepreneurs managing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China during the COVID-19 pandemic, using SmartPLS software. The research findings indicated that entrepreneurial mindfulness is positively associated with organizational resilience and such relationship is partially mediated by entrepreneurial resilience. These findings convey important theoretical implications in this field of research as well as practical implications for SMEs in China or other countries with similar nature.

Management in times of crises: reflections on characteristics, avoiding pitfalls, and pathways out

The world is shaken by global crises that have severe implications for firms and their management. But what is characteristic of a global crisis, and why do firms and their managers often fail to deal proactively and strategically with coping strategies for crises. This introductory paper explains the characteristics of crises and important underlying management behavior. These behaviors are most important to understand because they might escalate or reduce the effects of a global crisis in firms. We also explain the challenges associated with emphasizing the local effects of crises while ignoring or downplaying their global effects. Finally, we present the papers in this special issue that provide specific answers that can help to deal with aspects of a global crisis.

Sustainable performance in tourism SMEs: a soft modeling approach

Purpose

This paper aims to present a model to incentivize sustainable performance (SUP) in small- and medium-sized tourism by strengthening inner relations to adapt to a complex environment.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors adopted the systemic approach complementing analytic, tourism, partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM), social network analysis (SNA) and systemic approach tools as follows: frame the problem through the soft systems methodology and SNA and identify the conflicting relationships; apply PLS-PM to validate the model; and propose new interactions for small- and medium-sized enterprises conducive to SUP based on the viable system model.

Findings

Considering the results, the authors pinpointed factors and relationships managers can address to foster SUP, highlighting the need to reinforce feedback loops and reduce inconsistencies between primary operations with coordination and management mechanisms.

Research limitations/implications

This work is limited to the organizational domain. Although the results apply to the Mexican context, this could be overcome using methodological complementarity to extend the ideas to other organizations.

Practical implications

This study invites discussing methods and viewpoints for rethinking SUP because of multiple factors. This requires adopting methodological complementarity to generate alternatives and reconfiguring inner organizational interactions.

Originality/value

The model captures minimum but sufficient components advising leaders about SUP. This proposal differs from previous studies because it suggests exploiting methodological complementarity to capture the insights of key operative actors to conceive the model. Hence, the authors suggest new relations among organizational factors so managers can develop strategies for adaptability.

Developing an integrated framework of healthcare leaders’ resilience

Healthcare institutions have been under pressure for years now, climaxing in the COVID-19 crisis. Even if they are not operating at a trouble spot of the current COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare leaders need to be highly resilient to remain effective as well as staying healthy themselves. The purpose of this study is to shed light on healthcare leaders’ challenges and, more important, their specific resilience factors. By doing so, we can expand the knowledge of this fragmented research field and deliver an integrated framework that has so far been lacking. We conducted 20 in-depth interviews with healthcare leaders. More precisely, 35% (7) of our interviewees were physicians, 55% (11) worked in nursing, and 10% (2) were nonclinical professionals, with 50% (10) of our participants working in upper, 40% (8) in middle, and 10% (2) in lower leadership positions. Based on a qualitative content analysis approach, we identified main healthcare leaders’ challenges as well as crucial resilience factors (i.e., individual, situational, and behavioral factors). By integrating insights from contemporary leadership and work-related resilience research, we were able to develop an integrated framework of healthcare leaders’ resilience. Considering resilience as a context-dependent construct, we are contributing to the resilience and healthcare literature by investigating the specialty of healthcare leaders’ resilience. This study is contributing to the future development of resilience interventions in healthcare organizations that might help not only healthcare leaders to better cope with critical situations but also promote resilience development among their followers and organizations.

SMEs navigating COVID-19: The influence of social capital and dynamic capabilities on organizational resilience

Building the resilience capacity of businesses is important for economic, social and community recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic, yet organizational resilience is under-examined in the marketing literature. Crises and disasters can significantly impact small and medium enterprises (SMEs), affecting their ability to mitigate, respond and recover. Social capital (SC) is a key resource that can be mobilized by SMEs to tap the resources embedded in internal and external relationships to respond to disruptions, yet the mechanism through which SC facilitates organizational resilience is not clear. Using middle-range theorizing, we propose dynamic capabilities (DC) as the key sensing, seizing and reconfiguration resources that transform SC into organizational resilience. The results from a sample of SMEs (n = 419) in Australia and New Zealand demonstrate that internal SC has a positive effect on external SC (customer-focused). Only internal SC has a direct effect on organizational resilience. DC partially and fully mediates the relationship between internal and external SC and organizational resilience respectively. Implications for theory and practice are offered.

From growth goals to proactive organizational resilience: first evidence in women-led and non-women-led Italian wineries

In a fast-changing world, characterized by evenly unexpected challenges and shocks, being resilient is a crucial aspect for every organization. Drawing from the goal setting theory and the double standards of competence perspective, this study aims at understanding the antecedents of organizational proactive resilience. More precisely, it looks at the impact of quantitative and qualitative organizational growth goals on proactive resilience, distinguishing between women-led and non-women-led firms. Based on a unique sample of 167 Italian wineries (67 women-led and 100 non-women-led), this paper tests this theoretical model using path analysis techniques. The wine sector is a particularly interesting context to study the phenomenon due to its exposure to natural disasters, new consumers’ behaviours that are requiring firms to continuously innovate and differentiate in a traditionally low-tech sector, but also changes happening at wineries’ management level. In fact, the sector has been traditionally male dominated, but women are increasingly taking the lead. The findings indicate that growth goals differently contribute to proactive organizational resilience, but their effects vary in women- and non-women-led businesses. Specifically, these results suggest that in women-led wineries, proactive organizational resilience depends on quantitative growth goals while in non-women-led wineries businesses this depends on qualitative growth goals.

Social Capital and Transformational Leadership in Building the Resilience of Local Governance Networks

Resilience has become more popular among researchers and practitioners of public governance. Previous studies indicate the importance of social capital and leadership in this research field, but mainly theoretically and rarely are considered together. Therefore, this article aims to analyze the impact of social capital and transformational leadership on the resilience of local governance networks based on a questionnaire conducted among 199 local governments in Poland. The variance-based structural equation modelling (SEM) based on the partial least squares path modelling method (PLS) has been used to analyze the data collected. The obtained results indicate that social capital, primarily relational and cognitive, directly and significantly affects resilience, but transformational leadership impacts indirectly. In addition, the resilience of local governance networks is associated with bouncing back and change. These findings add value to the emerging theory of resilience in public governance and can also be helpful for public professionals.

Managerial overconfidence: promoter of or obstacle to organizational resilience?

Organizational resilience provides firms with the capability to face adverse circumstances successfully. Therefore, it constitutes an indispensable capability for each company. As indicated by Upper Echelon Theory, particularly executives and their personal traits exert a major impact on organizational capabilities, decision-making as well as action taking. Thus, they also should play an important role in promoting organizational resilience. However, so far literature lacks a comprehensive understanding regarding these relations. Accordingly, the present paper strives to add to such a comprehensive understanding with a particular focus on managerial overconfidence, one of the most widely and controversially discussed personality trait of executives. To pursue this goal, we develop a model comprising the relevant components of organizational resilience in terms of important resources, conduct a systematic literature review to identify the major corporate areas that are affected by managerial overconfidence and draw conclusions for the identified findings on the relation between organizational resilience and overconfidence. The analysis indicates a positive impact on social resources, a rather negative impact on procedural resources and a mixed impact on financial resources, where e.g. the effect on takeover activities is negative while the impact on financing preferences is at least partly positive. Moreover, the identified literature in large parts provides evidence regarding material resources, while social and procedural resources are covered to a lesser extent, indicating a need for further research.

Analysis of factors impacting firm performance of MSMEs: lessons learnt from COVID-19

Purpose

The micro, small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs) faced various challenges in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, making it challenging to remain competitive and survive in the market. This research develops a model for MSMEs to cope with the current pandemic's operational and supply chain disruptions and similar circumstances.

Design/methodology/approach

The exhaustive literature review helped in identifying the constructs, their items and five hypotheses are developed. The responses were collected from the experts working in MSMEs. Total 311 valid responses were received, and the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was used for testing and validating the proposed model.

Findings

Critical constructs identified for the study are-flexibility (FLE), collaboration (COL), risk management culture (RMC) and digitalization (DIG). The statistical analysis indicated that the four latent variables, flexibility, digitalization, risk management culture and collaboration, contribute significantly to the firm performance of MSMEs. Organizational resilience (ORS) mediates the effects of all the four latent variables on firm performance (FP) of MSMEs.

Practical implications

The current study's findings will be fruitful for the manufacturing MSMEs and other firms in developing countries. It will enable them to identify the practices that significantly help in achieving the firm performance.

Originality/value

The previous researches have not considered the effect of “organizational resilience” on the “firm performance” of MSMEs. This study attempts to fill this gap.

Being resilient for society: evidence from companies that leveraged their resources and capabilities to fight the COVID‐19 crisis

This study adopts a resilience perspective to explain how companies managed to contribute innovative solutions to fight the COVID‐19 crisis. We studied how five companies operating in different industries (three in automotive, one in printing, and one in rubber and plastic products manufacturing) managed to reorganize activities and employ their R&D and innovation capabilities to enhance their resilience. Simultaneously, they increased the health system’s capacity to cope with the outbreak. Through a qualitative inductive study, based on interviews with company managers, we found that the firms mobilized their resources and capabilities to expand their ability to adapt and cope with adversity at the organizational level. In addition, moved by the sensitivity to the extreme context and a perceived sense of urgency, the firms deployed the same endowments to strengthen the community’s response to a crisis. Our study shows that an organization can directly and positively foster the broader social system’s resilience. This study contributes to the innovation literature by identifying innovation capabilities as fundamental antecedents of resilience building for organizational response, paving the way for strengthening the link between resilience and innovation.

From resilience to satisfaction: Defining supply chain solutions for agri-food SMEs through quality approach

Since it is an important human need and many organizations are involved in the value chain, the agricultural food supply chain is exposed to various risks that arise naturally or through human actions. This study aims to develop the application of a quality function deployment approach to increase the resilience of the food supply chain by understanding customer needs and logistical risks in the food supply chain. In-depth studies with empirical analysis were conducted to determine the importance of customer needs, food supply chain risks, and actions to improve supply chain resilience of SMEs in the agri-food industry. The result shows that the top three customer needs are "attractive, bright color", "firm texture" and "fresh smell". The top three risks in the agri-food supply chain are "improper storage," "Harvest Failure" and "Human Resource Risks" and the top three resilience actions are "continuous training," "preventive maintenance," and "supply chain forecasting." The implications of this study are to propose an idea that broadens the perspective of supply chain resilience in the agri-food industry by incorporating the needs of customers in considering how to mitigate the existing risks to the satisfaction of customers, and it also highlights the relatively low skill and coordination of the workforce in agri-food supply chains.

Analysis of the Influencing Factors of Organizational Resilience in the ISM Framework: An Exploratory Study Based on Multiple Cases

As an important means to deal with crisis, organizational resilience has attracted the attention of academia and industry. However, research on what factors influence organizational resilience has lagged behind. In view of this, this study proposes the concept of organizational resilience on the basis of existing research and extracts the influencing factors of organizational resilience based on a multi-case analysis approach, using the organizational behavior of five companies in crisis situations as the research object. Based on the Interpretive Structure Model (ISM), the internal logical relationship and hierarchical structure of the factors influencing organizational resilience are analyzed. In this study, the importance of influencing factors of organizational resilience was analyzed by using analytic network process (ANP). It is suggested that strengthening organizational resilience is the key, organizational learning is the important basis, emotion management is the necessary condition, and organizational resources are the basic guarantee, which provides theoretical supplement and practical guidance for the study of organizational resilience.

Toward an Organizational Theory of Resilience: An Interim Struggle

While organizational resilience is widely considered as critical to sustainability, gaps in both the scholarly and professional literature exist. First, stronger conceptualization of the term is needed. Second, little is known about how organizational resilience can be continuously accomplished via daily practices and processes. Finally, the ongoing organization theory development does not sufficiently address these gaps. Contributing to the literature by filling in these fundamental gaps, the present study integrates the disconnectedly growing literature into an organizational theory of resilience. Based on the General Systems Theory, the resulting theory comprises inputs of human resources, socio-cultural values, institutional settings, and social and environmental issues, enabling organizational structure, value and belief subsystem, resilience mindset, sustainability practices, adaptive and buffering capacities, and sustainability performance as the output. Their dynamic relationships are discussed and expressed via a model and propositions, followed by implications for researchers and practitioners.

Efficiency vs resilience: The rise and fall of the German brown shrimp fishery in times of COVID 19

In times of world crisis such as climate change and the COVID pandemic much has been said about the need for resilience. However, in scenarios of less concern about crisis the leading paradigm is often that of efficiency. The current study shows how efficiency might have got on the way of achieving the necessary resilience to face the COVID 19. With the example of the German brown shrimp fishery in the North Sea the interaction between those two paradigms - efficiency and resilience - is shown in the context of the COVID 19 pandemic. For instance, the quest of efficiency for rationalisation may reduce the resources available to set aside buffers to resist shocks, and the standardisation key to efficiency may also hinder more diversity and hence open innovation for solutions to the crisis, all characteristics of resilient organisations. By making use of a literature review including peer reviewed, grey literature and web media as well as of interviews with experts and quantitative data the value chain of the German brown shrimp fishery is analysed under the conceptual framework of organisational resilience.

RESULTS

show that, despite being more oriented towards efficiency, the German fleets does not show particularly good results in selected efficiency indicators. Additionally, key stages of the value chain as processing and commercialisation together with the investment strategy fail to present some commonly accepted components of resilient organisations, such as redundancy, flexibility, adaptability, diversity, prudence and embeddedness. Despite developments in the direction of sustainability with the MSC certification, the German fleet should pay attention to its capacity to face disturbances, which should be supported by a more long-term, targeted, resilience-oriented policy support.

Internet of Things (IoT) Technology Research in Business and Management Literature: Results from a Co-Citation Analysis

In coherence with the progressive digitalization of all areas of life, the Internet of Things (IoT) is a flourishing concept in both research and practice. Due to the increasing scholarly attention, the literature landscape has become scattered and fragmented. With a focus on the commercial application of the IoT and corresponding research, we employ a co-citation analysis and literature review to structure the field. We find and describe 19 research themes. To consolidate the extant research, we propose a research framework, which is based on a theoretical implementation process of IoT as a concept, specific IoT applications, or architectures integrated in an adapted input–process–output model. The main variables of the model are an initial definition and conceptualization of an IoT concept (input), which goes through an evaluation process (process), before it is implemented and can have an impact in practice (output). The paper contributes to interdisciplinary research relating to a business and management perspective on IoT by providing a holistic overview of predominant research themes and an integrative research framework.

Sustainability and Resilience Organizational Capabilities to Enhance Business Continuity Management: A Literature Review

Although organizational sustainability and organizational resilience are critical dynamic capabilities for business continuity management, especially in times of crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, there are few studies that analyze the relationship between these three concepts to understand risks management. For this reason, our study analyzes these relationships to contribute to a better understanding of the subject and to propose future lines of research. We use bibliometric and content analysis, based on the Web Of Science and Scopus databases, during the period between 1998 and 13 May 2021. Main findings indicate that there is a bidirectional relationship between organizational sustainability capabilities and organizational resilience capabilities, but there is not enough evidence of their relationship with business continuity management. Additionally, results allow us to infer that there are four groups of relationships between them: (1) From Risk Management to Business Continuity Management and Organizational Resilience; (2) Resilience and Business Continuity practices; (3) Business Continuity contribution to Innovation and Sustainability; (4) Dynamic Capabilities for Organizational Sustainability and Organizational Resilience to enhance Business Continuity Management. Moreover, different stages were identified to understand the impact of organizational sustainability capabilities and organizational resilience capabilities on business continuity management facing disruptive events.