Enabling Strategic Change Toward Resilience: A Systematic Review From a Dynamic Capabilities Perspective

Abstract

This study identifies six dynamic capabilities (DCs), which enable corporates' strategic change toward resilience in today's increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) business environment. In this context, pertinent research has proven DCs' conduciveness for corporates to enhance their levels of resilience. Yet, there remain dispersed definitions of such DCs across research fields and a comprehensive synthesis has been missing. The present study addresses this gap through a systematic literature review of 71 articles published in peer‐reviewed journals. It synthesizes six fundamental DCs and their underlying microfoundations fostering resilience, which are mediated by the corporates' idiosyncratic social capital. Our findings thus contribute to the extant literature by providing a synthesis of relevant DCs into an integrated theoretical framework, answering multiple calls in previous research for a better understanding of the corporate resilience‐building process. By doing so, this study paves the way for future research to investigate the effects of DCs on the sustained competitive advantage of corporates in VUCA environments.