Towards A Theory of Resilient Ecosystems: A System Approach to Organisational Resilience

这一博士后奖学金将建立在我的博士研究的基础上，我的博士研究考察了22个异质组织及其商业生态系统中组织韧性的前因。通过2017至2019年间的两个阶段的数据收集，该研究表明，组织中存在各种弹性均衡，这些均衡是由组织间关系(IORS)属性的复杂交互作用形成的。这些发现在管理和组织研究文献中相对新颖，因为关于组织韧性的主流观点植根于工程韧性，强调系统在单一均衡附近的稳定性(例如，反弹)。更具体地说，通过对137个事件的分析，有人认为，组织内和组织外的任何层级都可能出现组织混乱，以及可能以恒定或不规律的速度向多个方向移动的相关影响(例如，快或慢)，再加上变化。然而，这项研究也显示了118个基于活动的组织间合作中出现的14个IOR属性，这些属性根据中断的性质相互作用，共同塑造组织的韧性。因此，该研究金将审查将工作扩展到一般系统一级的可能性，并探索这些关系属性如何相互作用，以建立有弹性的生态系统，这是一个不发达的领域，但为了可持续发展，必须了解这一点。面对与全球重大挑战交织在一起的紧迫问题(例如，[数字]贫困、社会不平等、气候变化、传染病)，这种努力的必要性非常迫切，因为没有任何一个单独的实体(例如，个人、组织或社区)能够为复杂和棘手的问题提供解决方案。联合国(UN)、国际组织和个别国家积极寻求应对上述挑战的方法，其中许多倡议(如联合国全球契约)涉及企业，旨在促进企业与公共和民间社会行为者之间的合作。虽然已经取得了相当大的进展，但商业组织在社会中的角色仍然矛盾，导致它们的贡献往往更多是象征性的，而不是实际的，有时会导致社会苦难和环境灾难(Scherer&Voegtlin，2020)。此外，数字经济(例如，工业4.0)的兴起不仅改变了传统领先企业在全球经济中的角色，还从根本上重组了传统价值链的需求和供应方(Pananond，Gereffi&Pedersen，2020)。企业未能生存的例子在很大程度上导致了高失业率，这反过来又加剧了人类面临的长期重大挑战。这是企业内部决策和激励结构中的一种谬误的表现，这种谬误削弱了组织的韧性。我将利用这一奖学金在寻求为这一领域做出贡献的学者社区中建立自己的地位，特别是在组织间关系的层面上，作为生态系统内不同单位之间的联系。在杜伦教授、泰隆·皮西斯博士的指导下，这项博士后奖学金将使我能够实现以下四个关键目标：(1)建立跟踪记录并通过高质量的出版物传播博士研究成果；(2)深化和扩大我在学术界内外的网络；(3)开发和提交两项研究拨款申请；(4)提高我在研究和教学方面的经验和技能。

This Postdoctoral Fellowship will build upon my PhD research which examined antecedents of organisational resilience in twenty-two heterogenous organisations and their business ecosystems. Through a two-staged data collection between 2017 and 2019, the study suggests that there are various equilibriums of resilience existing in organisations, which are formed by complex interactions of attributes of inter-organisational relationships (IORs). These findings are relatively novel in the literature of management and organisation studies because the mainstream view on organisational resilience is rooted in engineering resilience highlighting the stability of a system near a single equilibrium (e.g., bouncing back). More specifically, by analysing one hundred and thirty-seven events, it is suggested that organisational disruption can arise at any hierarchical level within and beyond organisations and associated effects that can move on a continuum (e.g., fast or slow) at a constant or irregular pace in multiple directions, compounded by changes. However, this study also shows fourteen IOR attributes emerging from one hundred and eighteen activity-based inter-organisational collaborations, which are interacted with each other depending on the nature of disruptions and together shaping organisational resilience. This fellowship will therefore examine the possibilities for expanding the work to the general system level and exploring how these relational attributes can interact for building resilient ecosystems, which is an underdeveloped area but important to be understood in order for sustainable development. In the face of pressing problems intertwined with global and grand challenges (e.g., [digital] poverty, social inequality, climate change, infectious disease), the need for such efforts could not be more urgent because no single entity alone (e.g., individual, organisation, or community) can provide solutions to complex and intractable problems. The United Nations (UN), international organisations, and individual countries actively seek ways to deal with the aforementioned challenges and many of these initiatives (e.g., the United Nations Global Compact) involve businesses and aim to facilitate collaborations among businesses and public and civil society actors. Although there is a considerable progress being made, the role of business organisations in society is still ambivalent resulting in that their contributions are often more symbolic than real, sometimes leading to social misery and environmental disasters (Scherer & Voegtlin, 2020). In addition, the rise of the digital economy (e.g., Industry 4.0) not only has transformed the role of traditional lead firms in the global economy but also fundamentally restructured both the demand and the supply side of traditional value chains (Pananond, Gereffi & Pedersen, 2020). Examples of businesses that fail to survive are plentiful contributing to the high rate of unemployment, which, in turn, has intensified the persistent grand challenges faced by humanity. This is a manifestation of a fallacy in the internal decision-making and incentive structures of businesses that undermines resilience in organisations. I will use the fellowship to establish myself within the community of scholars seeking to contribute to this space, especially at the level of inter-organisational relationships as the connection between different units within the ecosystem.With the mentorship of Durham Professor, Dr. Tyrone Pitsis, who is a leading researcher in complex projects designed to address systems level problems, this postdoctoral fellowship would allow me to achieve the following four key objectives: (1) establishing track record and disseminating PhD research findings through high-quality publications; (2) deepening and broadening my networks within academia and beyond; (3) developing and submitting two research grant applications; (4) advancing my experience and skills in research and teaching.