Abstract
In a world increasingly shaped by unexpected disruptions, resilience has become essential for organisations to ensure long-term success. In recent years, global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, large-scale mechanized warfare, and ongoing trade conflicts have significantly affected businesses, economies, and societies. Short-term challenges like natural disasters further add to these risks. These developments have intensified research interest in organisational resilience. Moreover, the growing
impact of climate change, resource scarcity, and rising global temperatures highlights the importance of sustainability, ensuring that current needs are met without compromising future generations. Against this context of increasing environmental and systemic pressures, a clearer understanding of how sustainability relates to organisational resilience becomes essential.
The study consists of an systematic review of 61 articles on resilience and sustainability in the organisational context, resulting from reducing a larger body of literature to relevant pieces of work. The findings of this review reveal that the relationship between resilience and sustainability in the organisational context is multifaceted and bidirectional. Sustainability enhances resilience by providing firms with the resources, knowledge, and adaptive practices needed to withstand crises, whereas others suggest that resilience contributes to sustainability by enabling organisations to maintain operations and achieve long-term goals. Through the bidirectional interaction, resilience and sustainability mutually reinforce each other, through continuous learning and knowledge-sharing mechanisms. Based on these findings, a conceptual model is proposed to illustrate the dynamic and reciprocal relationship between organisational resilience and organisational sustainability. This mutual reinforcement is recognized as a critical factor in ensuring long-term organisational viability.