Document Type : Research Article
Authors
1
Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
2
Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.
Abstract
Introduction: In recent years, organizational resilience has emerged as a vital construct for the survival and agility of firms in volatile and uncertain environments. Strategic entrepreneurship, which integrates opportunity-seeking behavior with strategic discipline, may significantly enhance an organization’s resilience capabilities. Meanwhile, internal dynamic capabilities such as organizational innovation and learning play pivotal mediating roles in the transformation of entrepreneurial capacity into actual resilience. This study aims to investigate both the direct and indirect impacts of strategic entrepreneurship on organizational resilience, with a special focus on the mediating effects of innovation and organizational learning.
Methodology: From a paradigmatic standpoint, this study is grounded in positivism. It is applied in purpose and follows a descriptive-correlational survey design, utilizing a quantitative methodology. Furthermore, it is cross-sectional in its time horizon. The statistical population comprised 210 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) located in the Khorasan Razavi Science and Technology Park. A sample of 136 companies was selected using Cochran's formula and simple random sampling. Data were collected using a standardized questionnaire administered to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of each firm to capture a holistic and strategic perspective on the study's macro-level constructs. The instrument's validity and reliability were confirmed through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), Cronbach's alpha, and composite reliability. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with SmartPLS software.
Findings: The path analysis results indicate that strategic entrepreneurship has a direct, positive, and significant effect on organizational resilience. Furthermore, organizational innovation and organizational learning both play a partial and significant mediating role in this relationship. The findings reveal that organizational learning serves as a more potent mediator than organizational innovation in transmitting the effect of strategic entrepreneurship to resilience. The research model successfully explained 68% of the variance in organizational resilience, and a Goodness-of-Fit (GOF) index of 0.491 confirmed a strong overall model fit.
Conclusion/Implications: The findings of this research demonstrate that while strategic entrepreneurship is a pivotal capability for enhancing organizational resilience, its full potential is realized only when reinforced by internal mechanisms of learning and innovation. This study suggests that to build sustainable resilience, managers of technology-based firms must move beyond merely adopting an entrepreneurial stance and instead focus on and invest in cultivating dynamic capabilities within their organizations. Accordingly, a key recommendation is that these firms should create a foundation for continuous learning by instituting knowledge management systems, conducting after-action reviews, and fostering a culture of knowledge sharing. Concurrently, it is essential to cultivate an innovative culture by supporting calculated risk-taking, proactiveness, and entrepreneurial alertness. Such an integrated approach translates strategic orientations into tangible and sustainable competitive advantages in today's turbulent markets.
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