Abstract
This paper reviews the state of the art on the resilience of complex systems by embracing different research areas and using bibliometric tools. The aim is to identify the main intellectual communities and leading scholars and to synthesize key knowledge of each research area. We also carry out a comparison across the research areas, aimed at analyzing how resilience is approached in any field, how the topic evolved starting from the ecological field of study, and the level of cross-fertilization among domains. Our analysis shows that resilience of complex systems is a multidisciplinary concept, which is particularly important in the fields of environmental science, ecology, and engineering. Areas of recent and increasing interest are also operation research, management science, business, and computer science. Except for environmental science and ecology, research is fragmented and carried out by isolated research groups. Integration is not only limited inside each field but also between research areas. In particular, we trace the citation links between different research areas and find a very limited number, revealing a scarce cross-fertilization among domains. We conclude by providing some directions for future research.
Highlights
A common property of many complex systems is resilience, that is, the ability of the system to react to perturbations, internal failures, and environmental events by absorbing the disturbance and/or reorganizing to maintain its functions.The word resilience originated in the 17th century from the Latin term “resiliere,” which means to jump back
Our analysis shows that resilience of complex systems is a multidisciplinary concept, which is important in the fields of environmental science, ecology, and engineering
The proposed framework is based on the expanded application of two primary enablers of enterprise resilience: (1) the capability of an enterprise to connect systems, people, processes, and information in a way that allows enterprise to become more connected and responsive to the dynamics of its environment, stakeholders, and competitors and (2) the alignment of information technology with business goals
Summary
A common property of many complex systems is resilience, that is, the ability of the system to react to perturbations, internal failures, and environmental events by absorbing the disturbance and/or reorganizing to maintain its functions. The concept was enriched to include the ability of the system to face with and adapt to change This proactive perspective focuses on the complex system features and their capacity for renewal, reorganization, and growth [2,3,4]. We conduct a systematic literature review of resilience of complex systems covering various disciplines: environmental science, ecology, operation research, management science, engineering, computer science, economics, and psychology. We note that recent literature reviews on resilience, while recognizing its multidisciplinary nature and analyzing studies in different domains, are conducted with the aim of giving insight only into a specific application context or research area. We end by discussing gaps in the literature and directions for future research
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