Innovation and Resilience: Two Empirical Studies and Systematic Literature Review

Resilience is a research field that emerged as a critical capability for organizations due to increased uncertainty and complex environmental conditions. These uncertainties may arise from the internal organizational system or external factors. However, the main aim of resilience is to make organizations able to anticipate, respond, and recover from adverse situations, thus improving their competitive advantage. The deep understanding of the mechanism of organizational resilience is imperative nowadays as the world is characterized by rapid technological advancements, environmental challenges, and economic fluctuations. Hence, resilience enables organizations to build capabilities to absorb shocks and sustain long-term growth. Organizations that invest in resilient strategies such as adaptive leadership, knowledge management, and strategic agility are better positioned to maintain their operational activities, survival, and sustainability. Innovation, on the other hand, serves the function of a fundamental driver in organizational success. It facilitates the development of new products, services, and processes to enhance competitiveness in a fast-paced environment. Organizations must embrace innovation to enhance relevance and deal with evolving market needs. Technology-driven and novelty-based innovations help businesses to refine existing capabilities, ensure continuous improvements, and even make transformative changes to create their space in the business world. Innovations also pave the way for creating new opportunities. Therefore, innovation plays a vital role in driving resilience, fostering adaptation, and enhancing efficiency in the global economy through innovative business models, digital transformation, and sustainable practices. Resilience and innovation are closely interconnected, as innovation serves as a key driver of resilience. Organizations do not merely withstand disruptions; rather, they leverage innovation to meet the challenges and emerge stronger. Innovation helps organizations to redefine industry standards and create new growth opportunities. Strategic integration of innovation within the resilience framework facilitates organizations in building anticipation capabilities rather than mere reaction. Investment in knowledge-based intangible assets, such as intellectual capital and digital capabilities, facilitates organizations in creative, innovative solutions to fortify resilience. The aim of the research study is to analyze the literature on innovation and organizational resilience and to analyze whether innovation makes firms resilient in adverse environmental situations. The objective of the first part of the study is to conduct an in-depth analysis of available literature on the relationship between innovation and resilience, as well as identify the main research gaps characterizing this literature. To conduct the review of the literature, bibliometric analysis and systematic literature review are implemented. Bibliographic analysis helps to find out the evolutionary research trends, the collaboration patterns, and emerging research areas, as well as discover the intellectual structure of specific topics and streams of literature. In the second part of the study, I tried to bridge some of the research gaps identified in the first part through empirical studies. The findings indicate that innovation is a critical factor; however, it needs some organizational and individual factors to enhance resilience in organizations. Initial exploration of the concept of resilience shed light on its determinants, measurements, challenges, and effects. The systematic literature review (SLR) reinforced the findings that there exists an important and indispensable relationship between innovation and organizational resilience. The relationship of innovation with resilience is of key importance in the context of supply chain management and sustainability. Then, a unique dimension of innovation was further studied in the context of an emerging South Asian country called reverse innovation. Reverse innovation, particularly one of its strategies of technological leapfrogging, was of key interest in the study. The findings demonstrated that digital capabilities such as digital literacy, digital experience, and big data analytical capabilities play a significant role in enhancing the relationship between innovation and resilience of SMEs. The final study explained that innovation is not enough to ensure the long-term survival of organizations. The innovation should be eco-friendly and should promote the well-being of the organization and society. Here, innovation may take the form of radical or incremental. In both cases, intangible assets such as green intellectual capital play a critical role in achieving the aim of resilience. Radical innovation exerts strong effects on resilience as compared to incremental innovation, as disruptions can cause fundamental changes in the overall structure, products, and services of the organizations. It was perceived that gender’s role may be critical in adopting strategies to make the organizations resilient, but results showed that systematic and strategic factors are much more important than demographic features. Overall, the results of the studies underscore that firms should build and use their intangible assets and resources wisely during disruptions to achieve resilience. Furthermore, they should also invest in the development of innovative capabilities to navigate crises and uncertainties.