Work

Enacting Resilience in Small and Medium Enterprises Following the Sustainability Path: A Systematic Literature Review

Year: 2024

Type: review

Abstract: ABSTRACT This article investigates entrepreneurship literature insights into whether and how changing organizational strategies and processes toward more sustainable ones can allow small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to gain resilience. We deepen the relationship between reorienting SMEs' strategies and processes toward sustainability and gaining resilience by providing a framework and suggesting avenues for future research. Specifically, we cluster the content of 53 articles in five thematic areas using qualitative thematic analysis. These areas are “barriers, contextual factors, and government help,” “entrepreneurial orientation or attitude,” “capabilities and lean thinking,” “means and processes,” and “supply chains, synergies, and collaborations.” The findings suggest that reorienting businesses to more sustainable strategies and processes can also facilitate the shift toward more resilient business models and ecosystems. The article contributes to the literature on SMEs' resilience, binding such literature with the one on sustainable business and SMEs' sustainability, providing a theoretical framework useful for researchers, managers, and policymakers. The novelty of the work consists of emphasizing consciousness of this relationship and suggesting unexplored lines of research.

Source: Strategic Change

DOI: 10.1002/jsc.2608

Authors: Rodolfo Damiano, Giuseppe Valenza

Institution: University of Palermo

Language: English

Topic: Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences

Subfield: Management of Technology and Innovation

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Decent work and economic growth

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,300