A contingent value of bricolage strategy on SMEs’ organizational resilience: lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

During the economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have adopted various crisis management techniques, including bricolage-coping strategies, to strengthen their organizational resilience. However, the specific impact of bricolage on SMEs’ resilience and the factors influencing this relationship are not fully understood. Our study explores a theoretical framework that suggests the effectiveness of the bricolage–resilience relationship is contingent on government support and business process innovation during crises. An analysis of responses from the Korean Innovation Survey 2021 shows that SMEs utilizing bricolage strategies exhibit greater resilience than those relying solely on conventional crisis responses. Interestingly, the resilience implication of bricolage diminishes when firms receive government financial aid or engage in business process innovations. This suggests that government financial support might reduce the necessity for self-reliant resilience strategies in firms practicing bricolage, while business process innovation may create challenges in productive resource orchestration between firm survival and growth.