Resilience Is Paramount for Managing Socio-Technological Systems During and Post-Covid-19

Abstract

The spread of the coronavirus concomitant with the Covid-19 disease highlights the interconnectedness between systems that serve humanity. These systems are typically portrayed in economic, ecology and environment, physical/technological, and socio-political contexts and maybe delineated in terms of the interconnectedness between these contexts. Any delineated socio-technological system represents an intriguing class of interconnected systems in the novel era of Society 5.0 concomitant with fourth industrial revolution. This article describes a framework and resiliency model for socio-technological systems plus an application of the lens of vulnerability and resilience to a case study energy systems enterprise. It is intriguing that the energy systems enterprise is usurping extant socioeconomic robustness thereby undergoing an absorptive phase of resilience. The discourse complements existing body of literature on energy systems and society by emphasizing that the principles of vulnerability and resilience are paramount for sustainable management of socio-technological systems, and more so in a post-Covid-19 world.

COVID-19 in Management Studies: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Fernando et al [71] affirm that COVID-19 has accelerated the processes of digital transformation in firms and many authors underline the importance of this process in view of new challenges and opportunities [61,78]. Innovation can support, for example, the development of work at home and smart working [61] also paying attention to the social aspect of these new ways of working [65]. The enabling technologies of Industry 4.0 play an important role in this innovative development [207].…”

“…Cluster 6 thus aims to a profound need to rethink marketing, its strategies in supporting and implementing a more genuine and authentic CSR and helping to address urgent global social and environmental challenges [177,179]. Therefore, innovation can be the most valid means to face the challenges posed by the pandemic, but it must be an innovation oriented towards the human, social and ethical component of businesses [65,66], in line with the transition already underway between Industry 4.0 and Society 5.0 [213].…”

Dynamic market complexity and service value advantage: an empirical investigation of business process management

“…focusing on repeatable routines-based results) and renewable dynamism-based technological processed in intra-firm network and inter-firm ecosystem (e.g. directing rapid innovation-based outcomes) (Amadi-Echendu and Thopil, 2020; Sharmeen et al. , 2020; Verganti et al.…”

Development of Strategic Resilience Framework for Small Businesses Post-COVID-19

“…Many small businesses operating in industries such as tourism, hospitality, hotels, and food services have been rigorously affected. For instance, almost 47% of SMBs offering services in hospitality and 54% of tourism agencies ceased their operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic [27]. Undoubtedly, the COVID-19 pandemic depicts an external jolt of unparalleled consequence for SMBs, causing a significant decrease in their earnings and profits.…”

“…They believe that balancing organizational structures [58] develops organiza-tional resilience features such as risk awareness, adaptability, flexibility, improvisation, and increased collaboration. Balanced power distribution in organizational structure in conjunction with operational normative control can build capacity against unforeseen events [27]. Therefore, it seems that organizational resilience attributes should be modulated into the organizational processes, and risk awareness is considered the basic characteristic of organizational resilience.…”