Building transilience through social innovation in social purpose organizations

Abstract

In a new world punctuated by multiple entangled crises associated, for example, with climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic, and wars – collectively referred to as a “polycrisis” – an important question arises for management researchers. The question is: How can we learn from and support organizations to not only adapt and rebound to their pre-adversity state following a crisis event (organizational resilience) but, importantly, to emerge stronger after a crisis subsides by building critical capabilities, to better withstand future crises, a process which we term transformative organizational transilience. Our paper investigates this question through 25 longitudinal qualitative case studies of social purpose organizations (SPOs) in Bangladesh before, during and after the Covid-19 crisis. We find that those SPOs which engaged in social innovation whilst balancing the dual objectives of supporting vulnerable beneficiaries (their primary social mission) and maintaining internal financial stability (their economic imperative) were better able to withstand and emerge stronger post-crisis. These SPOs bounce forward by leveraging adaptation, innovation and learning rather than merely returning to their previous state. This paper offers a four-phase conceptual process model of organizational transilience through social innovation, contributing to organizational transilience research. Conversely, it contributes to social innovation scholarship by highlighting the role that social innovation plays in building organizational transilience.