How does digital innovation synergy improve the organisational resilience of ‘specialized, refined, differentiated, and innovative’ SMEs?

Intricate and challenging environments profoundly impact enterprise development. Consequently, enhancing organisational resilience (OR) has emerged as a pressing concern. To demystify this, we draw on dynamic capability theory and employ fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to investigate how digital innovation (DI) synergistically configures across R&D, Production, and Scene dimensions to bolster OR over distinct periods. Focusing on 73 Chinese 'specialized, refined, differentiated, and innovative' (SRDI) SMEs, results show that (1) the single DI dimension is not necessary for OR, and the multi-dimensional DI synergy effectively enhances OR. (2) In each period, there are three equivalent DI configurations to improve OR. (3) In multi-period comparative analysis, DI configuration with R&D, Production, and Scene as constant core conditions manifests 'turning trajectory', 'expansion trajectory', and 'transition trajectory', respectively, in enhancing OR. This study expands the research perspective on SRDI SMEs and provides new theoretical and practical ideas for rationally configuring DI synergy across different periods.