Organizational Resilience: A Dynamic Capability of Complex Systems

In recent years, the concept of organizational resilience has largely attracted the interest of academicians and practitioners alike. A fair number of researches have been conducted on developing the concept of organizational resilience. However, there seems to be a lack of consensus over its conceptualization mainly because the concept itself is prodigious and is used in a variety of disciplines. Furthermore, research within the domain of organizational resilience has been outcome oriented; however, questions addressing the drivers of resilience are yet to be answered. On the other hand, research within the domain of dynamic capabilities view have long been criticized as tautological, resistant to operationalization, and lacking the unification of thought. However, there exists a sufficient degree of conceptual similitude between the two concepts, mainly due to their epistemological similarities grounded within the theoretical assumptions of chaotic systems, environmental dynamism, and systems thinking. Incorporating both perspectives in parallel for understanding the theoretical connections can lead to clarifications at an ontological level. Therefore, this paper attempts to propose a holistic model of organizational resilience by incorporating a lens metaphor of dynamic capabilities view. This paper is divided into four sections. The first section of this paper lays down the multidisciplinary discourses within the realm of organizational resilience. The second section highlights the management discourse about the conceptualization of organizational resilience. The third section of this paper uses a lens metaphor of dynamic capabilities view in an attempt to add depth to the concept of organizational resilience. The fourth and the final section attempts to propose the drivers of organizational resilience from a strategic viewpoint

An agent-based simulator for quantifying the cost of uncertainty in production systems

Product-mix problems, where a range of products that generate different incomes compete for a limited set of production resources, are key to the success of many organisations. In their deterministic forms, these are simple optimisation problems; however, the consideration of stochasticity may turn them into analytically and/or computationally intractable problems. Thus, simulation becomes a powerful approach for providing efficient solutions to real-world productmix problems. In this paper, we develop a simulator for exploring the cost of uncertainty in these production systems using Petri nets and agent-based techniques. Specifically, we implement a stochastic version of Goldratt’s PQ problem that incorporates uncertainty in the volume and mix of customer demand. Through statistics, we derive regression models that link the net profit to the level of variability in the volume and mix. While the net profit decreases as uncertainty grows, we find that the system is able to effectively accommodate a certain level of variability when using a Drum-Buffer-Rope mechanism. In this regard, we reveal that the system is more robust to mix than to volume uncertainty. Later, we analyse the cost-benefit trade-off of uncertainty reduction, which has important implications for professionals. This analysis may help them optimise the profitability of investments. In this regard, we observe that mitigating volume uncertainty should be given higher consideration when the costs of reducing variability are low, while the efforts are best concentrated on alleviating mix uncertainty under high costs.This article was financially supported by the State Research Agency of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/50110 0 011033), via the project SPUR, with grant ref. PID2020–117021GB-I00. In addition, the authors greatly appreciate the valuable and constructive feedback received from the Editorial team of this journal and two anonymous reviewers in the different stages of the review process

Determinants of bank adoption of branchless banking innovations: evidence from Malawi

The research investigates the drivers of bank adoption of branchless banking innovations (BBI) in Malawi. The interest in this investigation stems from the potential of BBI to contribute to solving some of the barriers to financial inclusion, a significant challenge for most African countries. However, due to data accessibility challenges in developing countries, much of the existing empirical literature on the financial services providers' side of BBI has focused on developed and emerging economies. Leveraging a unique dataset of Malawi's banking sector made available by the financial sector regulator, the research examines more dimensions of BBI than have most previous studies. The study digs further into the drivers of BBI by drawing a distinction between physical and remote BBI, a novel distinction in this field of research. The study adopts multiple econometric models and establishes regulation and bank size as the key drivers. Firstly, given the dynamic nature of innovation and risk, bolstering the relevance of regulation of BBI in helping institutions to manage innovation related risks requires an understanding of the unique risks that are faced in the local context. As BBI transcends many sectors, policy recommendations hinge on increased collaboration between the different sectoral regulators of BBI and the regulated institutions in the BBI ecosystem. Secondly, small banks are found to be rapid adopters of both physical and remote BBI. Scaling up BBI in the face of financial stability considerations therefore requires re-opening the banking sector to smaller financially sound institutions. Divergent findings on the impact of branch intensity on adoption of different forms of BBI are another crucial finding with important lesson for bank strategy. The positive association between branch intensity and physical BBI indicates that banks with extensive networks of branches can leverage their branding and physical presence to enhance financial inclusion among low-end retail consumers using physical BBI. On the other hand, banks with a small network of branches would benefit more from remote BBI strategies. In terms of bank ownership, the findings that government ownership in banks has a positive impact on the adoption of only some forms of BBI and a negative impact on other forms do not provide strong support for scaling up BBI strategy through the ownership channel. The findings that foreign ownership and BHC membership’s beneficial effects on BBI adoption emanates from the proliferation of small banks, that are rapid adopters, strengthens the case for further opening the sector to bolster competition