PurposeCOVID-19 and its economic consequences have provoked critical views on worldwide sustainable management, especially in the Arab world. Post-COVID-19, sustainability becomes important because the pandemic taught humanity to set aside differences and work together to support the global sustainability agenda. On the organizational level, sustaining an organization's competitive advantage is a key to surviving a crisis. Therefore, this study explores the impact of environmental scanning on sustaining Egyptian manufacturing SMEs' competitive advantage through organizational innovation.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts a cross-sectional design to collect data. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 249 Egyptian SMEs. The smart partial least square structural equation modeling technique (PLS-SEM) was employed to test hypotheses.FindingsOrganizational innovation has an effect on competitive advantage. There is no direct effect of environmental scanning on competitive advantage. However, organizational innovation fully mediates the relationship between environmental scanning and competitive advantage.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample size was small, covering only Egyptian manufacturing SMEs. The results may differ in the service sector and in other countries. The study was cross-sectional and could not trace long-term effects of environmental scanning and organizational innovation on competitive advantage.Practical implicationsIn the face of crises, Egyptian SMEs' managers should regularly scan their environments to build organizational innovation and in turn sustain their competitive position.Originality/valueThis study is amongst the first to investigate the role played by environmental scanning in sustaining Egyptian SMEs competitive advantage through the mediation of organizational innovation amidst the COVID-19 epidemic.

Purpose This study aims to examine the impact of environmental scanning on organizational resilience through organizational learning based on organizational information processing theory (OIPT) in Egyptian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, this study aims to examine the moderating role of environmental uncertainty in this relationship. Design/methodology/approach The data for the mediation analysis was obtained using a cross-sectional design. Using a self-administered questionnaire, the authors collected data from a sample of 249 Egyptian SMEs. The authors tested the hypotheses using the smart partial least square structural equation modeling approach. Findings Organizational learning affects organizational resilience. Environmental scanning does not have a direct effect on organizational resilience. However, organizational learning fully mediates the relationship between environmental scanning and organizational resilience. Furthermore, environmental uncertainty does not moderate the indirect relationship between environmental scanning and resilience. Research limitations/implications The sample included only Egyptian manufacturing SMEs. The results in the service sector and in other countries may differ. This study was cross-sectional, which was limited in its ability to trace the long-term effects of environmental scanning and organizational learning on organizational resilience. Practical implications Egyptian SMEs’ managers should experience organizational learning as a pathway for environmental scanning to build organizational resilience. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the role of environmental scanning in building organizational resilience through organizational learning and the moderating role of environmental uncertainty in this relationship.

Due to increased global environment volatility and uncertainty, organizations are constantly faced with unexpected events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which has brought large international disruptions for several firms. Organizational resilience is a potential notion for describing how firms might stay alive and thrive in such a volatile environment. Therefore, this study aimed to examine how SMEs can foster their resilience through investigating the roles of environmental scanning and process innovation while testing the moderating role of environmental uncertainty. To achieve this aim, we tested a structural model through an empirical investigation with partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) using a sample of 249 Egyptian SMEs. The results reveal that process innovation is a necessary condition for environmental scanning to affect organizational resilience. Furthermore, the results do not support the moderating role of environmental uncertainty the indirect relationship between environmental scanning and organizational resilience. Our findings contribute to innovation and resilience literature by proving that process innovation is a necessary mechanism to translate environmental scanning information to enhance resilience. This research is the first to highlight the role of process innovation in linking environmental scanning to organizational resilience. Our results provide insights about how Egyptian SMEs could remain resilient amidst the COVID-19 through scanning their environments to improve internal processes. We discuss related theoretical and managerial implications.

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the impact of environmental scanning (ES) on competitive advantage (CA) through the mediation of organizational resilience dimensions within manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Egypt.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a cross-sectional design to collect data. This study used a self-administered questionnaire to collect data from a sample of 249 Egyptian SMEs. This study employed the Smart partial least square structural equation modeling technique to test the hypotheses.FindingsES positively affects CA both directly and indirectly through the mediation of organizational resilience dimensions, namely, robustness and agility. However, ES does not affect integrity; therefore, integrity does not mediate the ES–CA relationship. These results indicate that organizational resilience partially mediates the relationship between ES and CA.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample size was small, covering only Egyptian manufacturing SMEs. The results may be different in the service sector and other countries. The study was cross-sectional which could not trace the long-term effects of ES and organizational resilience on CA. Therefore, a longitudinal study should be conducted, based on resource availability.Practical implicationsManagers in Egyptian SMEs should scan their environments to build organizational resilience and, in turn, enhance their CA.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is among the first endeavors to investigate the role of ES in building CA through organizational resilience in the context of Egyptian SMEs.

The COVID-19 pandemic’s characteristics, including how quickly it spread, and the emergence of new virus variations, raise serious questions about the pandemic’s potential repercussions and complications in the food and beverage industry, among other industries. The global COVID-19 pandemic highlights the pressing need to reconsider how we manufacture and market food and beverage goods. During the epidemic, SMEs must build organizational resilience (OR) in order to recover economically, socially, and communally. Relational capital (RC) is a crucial factor that can be deployed by SMEs to acquire the resources existing in the external networks to adapt to disturbances; however, the impact of RC on the resilience of Egyptian food and beverage SMEs is under-examined. Additionally, it is unclear how RC promotes organizational resilience. In this regard, we argue that social interactions and regular communication can let an SME and its business partners exchange information and best practices, thereby enabling it to immediately establish backup plans to deal with the disruption. In order to achieve our aim, we investigated how relational capital affected organizational resilience both directly and indirectly through environmental scanning, utilizing partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS–SEM).The results from 217 Egyptian food and beverage SMEs demonstrate that relational capital directly and positively affected organizational resilience. Besides, the RC–OR relationship is partially mediated by environmental scanning. Our current study, therefore, adds to the extant literature through being one of the few studies to address the topics of relational capital and resilience altogether during crisis times within a developing country, an issue that has not been sufficiently investigated in exiting literature. Moreover, our current study is the first one to empirically investigate the role of relational capital in facilitating environmental scanning activities of SMEs to ultimately foster their resilience. Our results, thus, prove that a large amount of information relevant for recovery are inherent within an SME’s external relations network. We provide implications for theory and practice.

PurposeBased on the dynamic capabilities view, the current study aims to empirically investigate the effects of organizational learning culture (OLC), strategic reconfiguration (SREC) and digital transformation (DT), altogether, on Egyptian private hospitals' strategic renewal in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted a cross-sectional design to collect the data used to carry out mediation analysis. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample consisted of 264 Egyptian private hospitals. The smart partial least square structural equation modeling technique (PLS-SEM) was adopted to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results demonstrate that OLC directly and positively affects SR. Besides, SREC and DT partially and serially mediate the OLC-SR relationship.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample size was small, covering only Egyptian private hospitals. The results may be different in the manufacturing sector and in other countries. The study was cross-sectional which is limited to trace long-term effects of OLC, SREC and DT on SR. Accordingly, a longitudinal study may be undertaken.Practical implicationsPrivate hospitals' managers must actively explore and dig out valuable resources in order to discover potential information and trends endeavor to redesign internal structures, and reconfigure their current resources, structures and strategies to achieve strategic renewal. The findings also provide new insights to mangers of private sectors' institutions and direct their attention toward adopting the strategic renewal option to survive amidst crises instead of retrenchment, persevering, or quitting business.Social implicationsThe study's results imply that health care providers have sought to improve the capacities of their health care systems to address the patient-level social needs through continuous learning, internal reconfigurations and the transformation toward digitalization to renew their services.Originality/value This study therefore contributes to SR literature by being the first empirical study to introduce an integrative model for the antecedents of SR amidst the pandemic.

The COVID-19 outbreak has made digital transformation (DT) in the healthcare sector extremely vital. Hence, this study tested the effect of organizational learning culture (OLC) on strategic performance (SP) through the serial mediation of DT and organizational resilience (OR). The structural model was tested via the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) using a sample of 264 Egyptian private hospitals. The findings revealed that OLC significantly affected DT, OR, and SP. However, the study's proposed model was not proved to be significant because DT and OR did not significantly affect SP. The findings contribute to DT and OR literature, first by introducing a new model of DT that includes OLC as an antecedent and OR as a consequence of DT, second by empirically proving that OR and SP as long-term strategic concepts should be used alternatively, and no one of them can act as an antecedent of the other.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the impact of environmental scanning on organizational resilience through the mediation of organizational learning and innovation based on organizational information processing theory (OIPT) within Egyptian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted a cross-sectional design to collect the data used to carry out mediation analysis. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample consisting of 249 Egyptian SMEs. The smart partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was adopted to test the hypotheses. Findings Environmental scanning does not have a direct effect on organizational resilience. However, organizational learning and innovation fully mediate the relationship between environmental scanning and organizational resilience. Research limitations/implications The sample size was small, covering only Egyptian manufacturing SMEs. The results may differ in the service sector and other countries. The study was cross-sectional which is limited to tracing the long-term effects of environmental scanning, organizational learning and innovation on organizational resilience. Accordingly, a longitudinal study may be undertaken. Practical implications Managers in Egyptian SMEs should use signals from environmental scanning activities as input for learning and transforming business processes through innovation to develop organizational resilience. Originality/value This study is the first to investigate the role of environmental scanning in building organizational resilience through organizational learning and innovation based on the perspective of OIPT within Egyptian SMEs during the COVID-19 crisis.