Business continuity and resilience management: A conceptual framework

Abstract

The overall objective of business continuity management (BCM) systems is to provide guidance and analytical subcomponents on how to assess and manage risk and sustain operations when facing a disruptive event. Current BCM practices largely follow a standard structure for formal planning processes and risk‐assessment activities. An underlying assumption in standard practices is that systems can be decomposed in subsystems in a meaningful way, as they are tractable and data are available to predict the system's future functionality. However, the reality is much more complex in our volatile world. Standard BCM approaches do not pay adequate attention to the treatment of uncertainties. Thus, they fall short of addressing the complexity of operations involved with emergencies and crisis. Lack of focus on uncertainty hampers the ability of BCM systems to provide sufficient support for decision making in highly uncertain situations. Dealing with such situations necessitates a shift from a defensive risk‐management approach, grounded on an illusion of control and accountability, to a proactive stance based on resilience thinking. Responding to this call, we use concepts from the resilience engineering (RE) field and link them to different components of a BCM system. We develop a novel BCM framework and identify a set of resilience influence factors to enhance resilience in BCM systems. We use a case‐example, hosted by a leading organization in a second‐line emergency response operation in Norway to reflect on the application of a suggested BCM framework.

Modelling enablers of business continuity for casual dining restaurants in post-COVID-19 era: an ISM and MICMAC perspective

“…Business continuity refers to the strategic and comprehensive approach organizations adopt to ensure they can continue their essential business functions and operations, even in the face of various disruptions or disasters (Steen et al, 2024). The primary goal of business continuity planning is to maintain or quickly restore the ability to provide products or services, meet regulatory requirements and fulfil obligations to customers, employees and other stakeholders despite adverse events (Vanichchinchai, 2023).…”

“…The primary goal of business continuity planning is to maintain or quickly restore the ability to provide products or services, meet regulatory requirements and fulfil obligations to customers, employees and other stakeholders despite adverse events (Vanichchinchai, 2023). Business continuity focuses more on ensuring effective risk mitigation, reducing downtime, safeguarding reputation, ensuring legal and regulatory compliance, protecting employees' interests, safeguarding financial stability and sustaining competitive advantage (Steen et al, 2024;Vanichchinchai, 2023).…”

Linkage of Customer Stewardship and Business Continuity in SME’s Post Pandemic using Marketing Mix 7P’s Analysis : Case Study of An Optical in Padang, Indonesia

“…The overall objective of business continuity management (BCM) systems is to provide guidance and analytical subcomponents on how to assess and manage risk and sustain operations when facing a disruptive event (Steen et al, 2023).…”

A framework for business continuity management in a multiactor context

“…BCM is increasingly used to nurture societal resilience. However, historically, BCM has not received extensive attention in research literature, despite a recent surge in interest, as evidenced by works like De Matteis et al (2023), Galaitsi et al (2023), Steen et al (2023), Taarup-Esbensen, (2023), which provide valuable insights and applications of BCM. Instead, BCM has evolved primarily through practical applications in the business sector, aiming to create business processes that can withstand or quickly recover from internal or external disturbances (Azadegan et al, 2020;Gibb & Buchanan, 2006;Tammineedi, 2010).…”