Linking resource slack to operational resilience: Integration of resource-based and attention-based perspectives

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With limited empirical evidence, prior research suggests resource slack as a fundamental feature of resilient operations and supply chains. This study draws insights from the resource-based theory to empirically examine the relationship between resource slack and operational resilience. The attention-based view of the firm is then used to argue that while resource slack may be an essential feature of operational resilience, its effect is mediated by organizational attention under varying conditions of strategic mission rigidity. These arguments are tested on primary data from 259 firms in a sub-Saharan African market, Ghana. Contrary to conventional wisdom, findings show that resource slack is not directly related to operational resilience. Rather, the study finds that the contribution of resource slack in driving operational resilience is channeled through organizational attention. Results further show that this indirect path is strengthened under conditions of low strategic mission rigidity. In expanding and clarifying extant literature on the resilience implications of resource slack, therefore, this study explains how operations and supply chain managers can combine organizational attention with low strategic mission rigidity conditions to convert resource slack into enhanced operational resilience outcomes. • Resource slack is not directly related to operational resilience. • Resource slack improves operational resilience through organizational attention. • Strategic mission rigidity weakens the organizational attention-resilience link.