Key Characteristics And Formation Mechanism Of Small And Medium-sized Enterprises Organizational Resilience Under The COVID-19 Epidemic Crisis

Facing the environment of intensified VUCA and continuous crisis in the COVID-19 pandemic era,how small and medium-sized enterprises shape and enhance organizational resilience to achieve sustainable development has become an important issue.Most of the existing research on organizational resilience focuses on the organizational resilience of large enterprises and public organizations(such as hospitals and fire brigade),while the research on the key characteristics and formation mechanism of organizational resilience of small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs)is relatively lacking.It is worth noting that there are obvious situational differences between the COVID-19 pandemic crisis situation and the previous crisis situation of organizational resilience.Therefore,this paper will focus on exploring the key characteristics and formation mechanism of organizational resilience of small and medium-sized enterprises in the context of the COVID-19 crisis.In this paper,an exploratory multi-case study method is adopted to select seven representative and typical SMEs.Through semi-structured in-depth interviews and visits and observations,first-hand data are collected.The key characteristics and formation process of organizational resilience of each sample enterprise under the epidemic crisis situation are summarized by using the rigorous three-level coding analysis based on grounded theory.Through horizontal comparison between multiple cases,theoretical coding is carried out to construct the key characteristics and formation process mechanism of organizational resilience of small and medium-sized enterprises under the epidemic crisis.The study found that the key characteristics of SME organizational resilience under the pandemic crisis are mainly reflected in the pandemic crisis insight,cautious and optimistic review,resilient leadership inspiration,agile learning and debugging,digital lean strategy,and building a community of common destiny.In the context of COVID-19 crisis,the formation process of organizational resilience of SMEs can be roughly divided into three stages.Induction stage,reaction stage and adaptation stage.In the sensing phase,SMEs actively and optimistically examine the internal and external environment,gain insight into crisis events and their adverse effects in the pandemic scenario,and identify development opportunities from them.In the response phase,the owners of small and medium-sized enterprises who have formed cognitive readiness for the pandemic crisis will exert resilient leadership,inspire and motivate their employees,and share their awareness of the pandemic crisis through empowerment and team learning.At the same time,smes can often adopt agile learning at this stage,constantly debug their business,work process and structure,and correct errors and errors,so as to create ingenious coping systems,emphasize the integration and utilization of resources,and actively cope with the impact of the epidemic crisis on their operations.In the adaptation stage,small and medium-sized enterprises will be based on the cognitive preparation formed in the induction stage,combined with the flexible response measures and agile learning and debugging results in the response stage,choose to adapt to the strategic transformation of the enterprise and the original industry,emphasize the important role of technology research and development in the formation of core competitiveness,in order to adapt to the constantly changing external environment with frequent accidents.To build a community of common destiny up and down the industrial chain,pursue value cocreation with customers,and realize the recovery,rebound and sustainable development of organizational performance of small and medium-sized enterprises.The conclusions of this study enrich the existing theoretical research horizon of organizational resilience,further improve the theoretical framework of organizational resilience,and also enrich and improve the theoretical content of crisis management of small and medium-sized enterprises.In addition,the theoretical insights of this study have important practical guiding significance for small and medium-sized enterprises to cope with the epidemic crisis and build organizational resilience.