Conceptualising Business Resilience in the Context of Resource Scarcity

Firms increasingly operate in environments characterised by various interacting crises in which shocks place simultaneous and competing demands on organisational resources. However, existing management research almost exclusively studies business resilience in contexts of singular shocks, commonly promoting proactivity as the ideal resilience strategy. Little is known to which extent proactive approaches to resilience remain feasible in contexts of accumulating crises and intensifying resource constraints. Here, we conduct a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed studies on firm-level approaches to resilience in Global South contexts often marred by overlapping economic, political, health-related and environmental shocks. Analysing the resulting 86 studies, we find that proactivity functions more as a conceptual ideal than a practical mode of action and rarely materialises in organisational practice. Instead, organisational resilience responses in our sample are shaped by resource scarcity, exposing limitations of the widespread linear, three-stage framework of reactive, adaptive and proactive resilience. Specifically, we identify four resource-related mechanisms that influence resilience strategies of firms in the Global South firms. These mechanisms are hierarchically organised, with strong networks forming the foundational resource that enables all other mechanisms.