Change process: a key enabler for building resilient SMEs

Abstract

Resilience is seen as a key organisational capability for sustainability in the current turbulent environment. At the same time, for organisations to be more sustainable and resilient, the delivery of innovative responses to the market through continuous change and improvement is necessary. If small and medium enterprises (SMEs) account for over 70% of the world's production, and there is a growing mandate to create sustainable SMEs, then instilling, developing and implementing change capabilities is paramount in making progress towards sustainability and resilience. Therefore, this article aims to demonstrate that change management process capability is fundamental to creating resilience in SMEs. This study is based on a multiple case study methodology through semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with 232 senior managers in 37 manufacturing SMEs across Europe. This article demonstrates that sustainability and resilience in SMEs will be enhanced by (1) ability to embrace organisational and people dimensions as well as operational aspects of change management, and (2) paying attention to long-term planning and external communication to drive change proactively. This article builds a bridge between the theoretical starting point, the results of empirical research and the usability of the presented findings in practice in order to contribute to the development of more resilient SMEs.