Navigating crises: leveraging socioemotional wealth and slack resources to build resilience

Purpose To gain insights into firms' resilience, this article investigates whether family-owned small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are more proactive than non-family SMEs in building their resilience capabilities, as well as whether their socioemotional wealth (SEW) might determine their levels of proactivity. As relevant features, this study considers firms' capabilities for absorbing shocks, renewing in response to changing conditions and learning from crises. The authors examine both direct effects and mediation by firms' potential to mobilize slack resources. Design/methodology/approach The analysis of 175 family and non-family SMEs based in Spain relies on structural equation modeling for the hypothesis tests. The data were collected with a comprehensive survey, administered to top-level executives directly involved in strategic decision-making processes. Findings Family SMEs exhibit superior absorption, renewal, and learning capabilities. Slack resources are a necessary condition for absorbing shocks; and they also help develop the renewal and learning capabilities. High levels of SEW emerge as positively related to all three capabilities: directly to renewal and learning capabilities and indirectly to absorption capability. Originality/value This study advances family SME resilience literature by differentiating the ways that family SMEs develop resilience, compared with non-family SMEs. By establishing nuanced insights into the impact of socioemotional wealth on resilience capabilities, it also offers a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that can enable family businesses to navigate crises.