Integrative Review of Absorptive Capacity’s Role in Fostering Organizational Resilience and Research Agenda

Abstract

Organizational resilience (OR) has been studied as an important construct for maintaining an organization’s sustainability in today’s dynamic business world. However, the exact way to systematically achieve OR in real organizational settings is still unknown. In this paper, the scholars elucidate how OR can be fostered by developing knowledge absorptive capacity based on the knowledge-based view and dynamic capability theory. The paper highlights the significance of knowledge resources for a firm’s survival nowadays and provides conceptual clarity of how a firm’s ACAP could reinforce fostering OR. Thereby, this review fills the knowledge gaps of previous studies. Based on the review corpus, scholars also address other prominent antecedents for nurturing OR, such as leadership styles, dynamic capabilities, organizational learning, unlearning, networks, and social capital. Lastly, a conceptual model was developed for future organizational studies. In addition to the aforementioned contributions, the study’s novelty also lies in the review method, which is systematically conducted in an integrated manner by combining a bibliometric analysis and a scoping review. Furthermore, the study analyzes a more expansive database that includes 823 documents and covers documents published more recently, from 1992 to 2021.