The possibilities of resilience for service organisations

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to provide an examination of the use of the concept of resilience and its use in service organisation, ecosystem-related literature and the wider social sciences. Design/methodology/approach This paper provides a critical review and commentary on the resilience literature in the social and business sciences and its relevance to service organisations. Findings Two main approaches towards resilience are identified (engineering and socio-ecological resilience) with each having different assumptions about the nature of resilience with corresponding implications for policymaking, indicator selection and application in a service context. These approaches operate at different scales and possess different properties with respect to the likelihood of enacting transformative service marketing. Practical implications Different conceptualisations of resilience have profound implications for resilience-related policymaking as well as understanding change and adaptation in service ecosystems and organisations. Social implications The transformative possibilities of resilience are connected to the active enhancement and construction of social capacity by service organisations and the persistent resilience of the resilience concept. Originality/value This paper highlights the importance of clearly defining the resilience concept and its implications for research and transformative service organisations.