Creating resilient SMEs : why one size might not fit all

This article is a first step towards addressing a gap in the field of organisational resilience research by examining how small and medium enterprises (SME) manage the threat and actuality of extreme events. Pilot research found that the managerial framing of extreme events varied by a range of organisational factors. This finding informed further examination of the contextual nature of the resilience concept. To date, large organisations have been the traditional focus of empirical work and theorising in this area; yet the heterogeneous SME sector makes up approximately 99% of UK industry and routinely operates under conditions of uncertainty. In a comparative study examining UK organisational resilience, it emerged that SME participants had both a distinctive perspective and approach to resilience when compared to participants from larger organisations. This article presents a subset of data from 11 SME decision-makers. The relationship between resilience capabilities, such as flexibility and adaptation, is interrogated in relation to organisational size. The data suggest limitations of applying a one-size-fits-all organisation solution (managerial or policy) to creating resilience. This study forms the basis for survey work examining the extent to which resilience is an organisationally contingent concept in practice.15 page(s

Firm performance in challenging business climates: does managerial work engagement make a difference?

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Asian Business and Management. The definitive publisher-authenticated version FRIESENBICHLER, K. and SELENKO, E., 2017. Firm performance in challenging business climates: does managerial work engagement make a difference? Asian Business and Management, 16 (1), pp.25-49 is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41291-017-0016-4.Do more highly work-engaged managers contribute to firm performance? Leaning on the resource-based view, we propose managerial work engagement as a resource relevant to firm performance. Data from a representative survey of managers in Bangladesh support this and illuminate the role of the wider context in predicting work engagement. In less-corrupt environments with a more humane leadership culture, work engagement is more prevalent. In addition, individual work engagement is driven by firm-level factors and contributes independently to firm performance. This illustrates the mutual dependency between an individual manager’s work engagement and microeconomic determinants of firm performance