From Diversification to Digitalisation: The Impact of Strategic Survival Models on Construction Business Resilience in Emerging Markets

Construction firms in emerging markets operate in highly volatile environments that threaten business continuity and sector-wide resilience. This study provides a novel, integrated framework that links multiple strategic survival models to construction business resilience and development in Ghana’s construction industry, with particular emphasis on the evolving role of digitalisation. Four survival models are conceptualised as strategic portfolios: Innovation and Digital Transformation, Diversification and Growth, Lean and Resilience, and Strategic Risk and Partnerships. A quantitative research design was employed, using structured questionnaires administered to 128 construction industry stakeholders. Data were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling to assess direct, indirect, and mediating effects among survival models, construction business resilience, and construction business development. All four survival models have significant positive effects on construction business resilience, with Diversification and Growth (β = 0.404) and Innovation and Digital Transformation (β = 0.377) exerting the strongest influence, followed by Strategic Risk and Partnerships (β = 0.265) and Lean and Resilience (β = 0.207). The structural model explains 55.7% of the variance in construction business resilience, while construction business resilience is positively and strongly related to construction business development (β = 0.439), accounting for 19.3% of its variance. The findings show, for the first time in this context, that construction business resilience systematically mediates the relationship between distinct strategic survival portfolios and business growth in an emerging-market construction sector. This study advances the resilience and construction management literature by empirically demonstrating the hierarchical effectiveness of different survival models and by positioning construction business resilience as both a defensive capability and a strategic engine of sustainable development for construction firms in volatile markets. This paper recommends that firms develop composite resilience portfolios that integrate these strategies, while policymakers foster enabling regulations, digitalisation incentives, and joint risk-sharing arrangements that amplify sector-wide resilience. It offers a portfolio-based perspective on how to combine diversification, digital transformation, lean management, and strategic partnerships to build resilient, growth-oriented construction businesses. Convenience sampling and a cross-sectional design in a single national context highlight the need for longitudinal and cross-country research to validate and extend the proposed framework.