by Luis Alfonso Moreno-Corredor1, Andrés Alejandro Fernández-Rosas2 and Sandra
Marcela Moreno-Galvis
ABSTRACT
This paper presents a systematic literature review of the relationship between organizational resilience
capabilities (ORC) and operational capabilities in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), covering
Scopus-indexed research published between 2015 and 2022. Following the PRISMA protocol, 143 records were
initially identified, screened according to predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, and ultimately reduced
to 41 peer-reviewed journal articles for full-text analysis. Three research questions guided the synthesis: what
operational capabilities have been associated with ORC in SMEs (RQ1); what antecedents, outcomes, and
theoretical frameworks explain this relationship (RQ2); and what research gaps persist (RQ3). The review
reveals that dynamic capabilities — particularly sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring — are the dominant
theoretical lens, appearing in nearly three-quarters of included studies. Supply chain agility, flexibility, and
risk management emerge as the most consistently documented operational capabilities, though their relative
importance varies by disruption type, firm size, and geographic context. Emerging economies account for over
half of empirical contributions, yet comparative studies with developed-economy SMEs remain scarce. A
research agenda is proposed around five priority gaps: the moderating role of firm size in capability
effectiveness; the dynamics of capability deployment across disruption phases; the decoupling of resilience
from financial performance under systemic shocks; the underexplored contribution of social and family capital;
and the absence of longitudinal designs capable of capturing capability evolution.
