The Role of Entrepreneurship and Digital Maturity in Building Organizational Resilience in an Emerging Economy Context

Abstract

This study examines how entrepreneurial capability, resilience strategy, digital maturity, and supply chain integration shape organizational resilience in resource-constrained small enterprises (SEs) in Southern Thailand, grounded in Dynamic Capabilities Theory (DCT). While these capabilities have been studied in isolation, how they interact as a sequential system in emerging economy contexts remains underexplored—a gap this study addresses by reconceptualizing resilience as a capability-building process rather than a static outcome. A sequential explanatory mixed-methods design was employed: quantitative data from 539 SEs across 14 provinces were analyzed using CB-SEM, complemented by 20 semi-structured interviews. Entrepreneurial capability positively influences resilience strategy (β = 0.711) and digital maturity (β = 0.470), which strengthen supply chain integration. Supply chain integration demonstrates the strongest direct effect on organizational resilience (β = 0.745), with resilience strategy (β = 0.356) and digital maturity (β = 0.503) contributing additional direct effects. Mediation analysis confirms a partial and sequential mediation structure, with entrepreneurial capability influencing resilience directly and indirectly. These findings extend DCT by introducing contingent capability alignment as a novel theoretical construct, demonstrating that digital maturity generates resilience only when aligned with complementary capabilities, and repositioning supply chain integration as the central transforming mechanism in emerging economy SE contexts.