Bridging Economic and Psychological Perspectives on Financial Resilience: An Integrative Review and Research Agenda

Abstract

Scholarly interest in financial resilience has grown significantly over the past decade, yet the literature remains fragmented, marked by conceptual ambiguity and methodological inconsistencies. This integrative review critically synthesizes research on how consumers recover from financial shocks, bridging economic and psychological perspectives to advance a multidimensional understanding of financial resilience. Guided by the SPAR-4-SLR protocol, a literature search was conducted across Scopus, PsycINFO, and EconLit databases. The final sample comprises 112 documents published between 2011 and 2025. Analyses reveal persistent gaps in both conceptualization and measurement of the construct. Resilience is often conflated with related but distinct constructs, and the adoption of robust theoretical frameworks remains limited. Empirical studies predominantly emphasize economic resources (e.g., emergency savings, income, or liquidity), while neglecting non-economic resources, such as social capital and psychological characteristics. Furthermore, existing measurement tools often fail to capture the multidimensional nature of financial resilience. To address these limitations, the study outlines directions for future research aimed at improving theoretical clarity and methodological robustness. It also proposes guidelines to reconceptualize financial resilience as a systemic and dynamic process embedded within broader social and psychological systems, and to develop context-based frameworks.