This thesis contributes towards understanding the dynamic phenomenon of entrepreneurship by exploring how entrepreneurs developed resilience within institutional constraints at the lived experience level. This is a qualitative research based on several assumptions of the phenomenological paradigm. The research describes the experiences of thirty-four participants - twenty-three practising entrepreneurs, and eleven Directors whose institutions support entrepreneurship, particularly the dimensions of the institutional profile, as well as how they developed resilience within institutional constraints. The study proposes that entrepreneurial resilience development is dynamic reflecting the context in which it arises. Institutions determine the rule of the game for entrepreneurs, in that entrepreneurs fit within the limitations provided by the institutional framework (North, 1990). The institutions shape opportunity fields for entrepreneurship, determine the ease and transaction cost of entrepreneurship, determine the stability and certainty of the environment, guide the strategic activities of entrepreneurs, confer legitimacy on entrepreneurs, (re)allocate entrepreneurship, and counter market failures for entrepreneurs. The experiences of the individuals indicate such constraint limits what the entrepreneurs are capable of doing. The research therefore focuses on how the entrepreneurs survived within such constraints, especially operating within underdeveloped institutions. In particular, the participants described how they were able to survive within such institutional constraints. The term 'resilience' can sometimes be trivialized to mean 'ego-resilience', which basically talks about certain characteristics that individuals' exhibit to show their resilience. Instead, apart from individuals exhibiting certain characteristics, there are several contextual activities that must be put in place to ensure survival or recovery within institutional constraints. These activities represent the resilience strategies that the entrepreneurs designed and implemented so as to survive institutional constraints - breakthrough, circumvent, destructive, and other strategies. The study concludes that entrepreneurial resilience strategy occupies a central role within three complex, interactive and interdependent processes - institutions, entrepreneurship, and resilience. Furthermore, entrepreneurship is engulfed in institutions, which act as the "determinant", "promoter", and "inhibitor" of entrepreneurial activities. Hence, entrepreneurs need to develop resilience through preventative, reactive or agility strategies, so as to be able to survive the institutional arrangements. The research therefore works towards a more integrated perspective of entrepreneurship development.

Background: the impetus for this study emanated from Covid-19 crisis in the context of Sweden's business environment in which numerous disruptions in business operations have been experienced. Organizational resilience has been selected as a positive strategic response by which resilience capabilities of sit-in restaurant managers in handling disasters and crises play an integral role so as to achieve future organizational success and continuity.  Purpose: To apply resilience theory and develop some underlying themes from effective application of  resilience strategies in sit-in restaurants during Covid-19 crisis. This thesis sought to identify similarities and differences in the application of organizational resilience strategies during crises. Resilience strategies categorized into four by Hillmann and Guenther (2020), that is, organizational flexibility, organizational adaptive capacity, organizational change capacity and organizational buffering capacity  were tested and laid the foundation for development of new theoretical framework.   Methodology: A qualitative study that involved six sit-in restaurants were randomly selected and the underlying themes of their resilience capabilities were analyzed. Semi-structured interviews and questionnaires were used to gather empirical data. Six interviews were conducted in which sit-in restaurant managers in Sweden were the interview participants. Findings: Research findings revealed that some sit-in restaurant managers were more resilient than others thereby contributing to survival of restaurants that they managed during crisis. Some managers only applied a selection of resilience strategies leading to declined resilience capabilities in managing crises contributing to business failure whereas an integrated approach in application of all resilience strategies contributed to effective crisis management. These findings laid the foundation for the development of new theory in organizational resilience.

Pharmaceutical supply chains are susceptible to disruptions which impact on the operational and financial performance of firms as well as patient safety. This study aimed to explore why the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain (PSC) in the UK is susceptible to the impact of dynamic disruptions and examine how resilience strategies have were employed to reduce the effects of these disruptions. The Complex Adaptive System (CAS) theory was used as a framework in an exploratory research design using mixed-methods. The qualitative data were gathered through 23 semi-structured interviews with key supply chain actors across the PSC in the UK to explore their experiences. The findings from these semi-structured interviews were used to develop a survey which was distributed to a broader spectrum of supply chain actors where the final sample from the survey was (n=106). The data were triangulated to discuss the research findings. The initial results revealed power, conflict and complexities as drivers of vulnerabilities in the PSC. Antecedents for building resilience strategies included visibility, flexibility and joint decision making as recovery strategies and resource sharing as the resistance strategy. CAS provided a systemic approach to understanding PSC resilience rather than in parts. In doing so, it took into consideration the various elements that make up the entire system. Thus, vulnerabilities and resilience strategies were outcomes of the interactions between supply chain actors. The findings demonstrated that CAS, as a theory, provided a framework that was beneficial in exploring and gaining insights into PSC resilience. Also, by combining the two datasets (interviews and survey), an original output was proposed -the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Resilience Framework (PSCRF)- which was used to recommend resilience strategies suitable for mitigating disruptions in the PSC.

No / Supply chain resilience has been suggested to curb the impact of disruptions on supply chains. While this proposition seems coherent in theory, empirical evidence supporting this is limited, as existing literature has centred on exploring the impact of supply chain resilience on disruptions which are based on set time frames, non-supply chain specific as well as examining non-dynamic disruptive events. This study contends that resilience strategies are dynamic and as such their applications within supply chains differ. Therefore examining the impact of resilience will be appropriate on a dynamic disruption within a specific supply chain. In view of this, the paper examines through existing literature the applicability of agility within the pharmaceutical supply chain when dynamic disruptions like drug shortages occur. The study finds alertness, accessibility, connectivity and visibility as dimensions of supply chain agility that are capable of reducing the impact of drug shortages.

Yes / Purpose The objective of this study was to advance our knowledge of pharmaceutical supply chain resilience using Complex Adaptive System theory (CAS). Design/methodology/approach An exploratory research design which adopted a qualitative approach was used to achieve the study’s research objective. Qualitative data were gathered through 23 semi-structured interviews with key supply chain actors across the PSC in the United Kingdom (UK). Findings The findings demonstrate that CAS, as a theory, provides a systemic approach to understanding PSC resilience by taking into consideration the various elements (environment, PSC characteristics, vulnerabilities and resilience strategies) that make up the entire system. It also provides explanations for key findings, like the impact of power, conflict and complexity in the PSC, which are influenced by the interactions between supply chain actors and as such increase its susceptibility to the negative impact of disruption. Furthermore, the antecedents for building resilience strategies were the outcome of the decision-making process referred to as co-evolution from a CAS perspective. Originality/value Based on the data collected, the study was able to reflect on the relationships, interactions and interfaces between actors in the PSC using the CAS theory, which supports the proposition that resilience strategies can be adopted by supply chain actors to enhance this service supply chain. This is a novel empirical study of resilience across multiple levels of the PSC and as such adds valuable new knowledge about the phenomenon and the use of CAS theory as a vehicle for exploration and knowledge construction in other supply chains.

This dissertation consists of three papers related to firms' resiliency to supply chain disruptions. The first paper seeks to evaluate the effects of supply chain disruptions on firms' performance by using a recent dataset of supply chain disruptions. To this end, we analyzed operating and stock market performances of over 300 firms that experienced a supply chain disruption during 2005 to the end of 2014. The results show that supply chain disruptions are still associated with a significant decrease in operating income, return on sales, return on assets, sales, and a negative performance in total assets. Supply chain disruptions are also associated with a significant negative abnormal stock return on the day of the supply chain disruption announcements. These results are in line with previous findings in the literature. In the second paper, in order to provide a more detailed characterization of negative impacts of disruptions on firms' performance, we develop three complementary measures of system loss: the initial loss due to the disruption, the maximum loss, and the total loss over time. Then, we utilize the contingent resource-based view to evaluate the moderating effects of operational slack and operational scope on the relationship between the severity of supply chain disruptions and the three complementary measures of system loss. We find that maintaining certain aspects of operational slack and broadening business scope can affect these different measures of loss in different ways, although these effects are contingent on the disruptions' severity. The third paper examines relationships between the origin of supply chain disruptions, firms' past experience, and the negative impacts of supply chain disruptions on firms' performance. This third study shows that the impact of external and internal supply chain disruptions on firms' performance can be different when firms do and do not have past experience with similar events. For example, the results show that past experience significantly decreases initial loss, recovery time, and total loss over time experienced by firms after internal disruptions, although past experience may not decrease initial loss, recovery time, and total loss over time in the case of external disruptions. / Ph. D. / Supply chain disruptions occur frequently in today’s complex and interdependent business environment. The Kumamoto earthquakes, Hanjin Shipping’s bankruptcy, and Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, are just a few events that led to major supply chain disruptions in the U.S. and other parts of the world in 2016 and 2017 alone. In this dissertation, we first use a recent dataset of supply chain disruptions to evaluate the effects of supply chain disruptions on firms' performance. The results show that supply chain disruptions are still associated with significant negative impacts on firms’ performance as they have been shown to be in previous studies of earlier datasets. Next, we provide a broader assessment of supply chain disruptions’ impacts on firms’ performance. To accomplish this, we specifically consider the negative impacts with respect to three complementary metrics borrowed from the systems resilience literature: the initial loss, the maximum loss, and the total loss over time. The initial loss and maximum loss metrics evaluate different characteristics of the magnitude of a disruption’s impact on a firm’s performance, whereas total loss over time gives a broader measure of the overall effect of that disruption on that firm, over time. By adopting a more comprehensive view of firms’ performance through the use of such systems resilience concepts, we develop new and expanded inferences about how and when maintaining operational slack and broadening operational scope can benefit firms by helping to reduce the negative impacts of disruptions. Finally, we study the relationships between the negative impacts of supply chain disruptions on firms’ performance, the origin of supply chain disruptions, and firms’ prior experience. The results show that the impact of internal and external supply chain disruptions on firms’ performance can be different when firms do and do not have past experience with similar events. In particular, the results show that past experience significantly decreases initial loss, recovery time, and total loss over time experienced by firms after internal disruptions. However, past experience may not decrease initial loss, recovery time, and total loss over time in the case of external disruptions.

Each year people are injured and even die in crowd related accidents, often during planned events. Recent studies have emphasized the need for using a systems approach to study these events. In this study the systems approach of resilience theory is combined with the crowd psychology-models Extended Social Identity Model and the Aggravation and Mitigation Model to examine event safety at a music festival, a domain previously largely unexplored by these perspectives. By using an ethnographic approach as well as interviewing visitors the study set out to answer questions about when and how the safety organization adjusted itself under conditions relating to crowds. Another goal was to study the social identity of the visitors as well as the interaction between the safety organization and the visitors at the festival to explain the presence or absence of crowd conflict. Using thematic analysis several situations were identified where the safety organization adjusted itself, as well as the strategies that the organization used in these different circumstances. It was also concluded that the absence of crowd conflict could best be explained by three factors. First of all, no history of crowd conflict existed between the safety organization and the visitors, secondly, there were no groups present with the goal of creating conflict, and thirdly, the social processes taking place between the safety organization and the visitors were all mitigating in nature. The mitigating nature of the social processes was partly attributable to the strategies identified for adjusting to crowd conditions.