The role of social capital on proactive and reactive resilience of organizations post-disaster

With disruptive events of higher magnitudes increasing globally, building resilience has become a priority for many organizations. Existing studies have prioritized the contribution of internal factors to building organizational resilience. This study examines social capital emanating from supply chain partners as an external factor building organizational resilience. Using social capital theory, we develop a conceptual model that postulates three dimensions of social capital (cognitive, structural and relational) as antecedents of both proactive and reactive organizational resilience. The model is tested on a sample of Chinese firms that survived the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. The findings show that not all facets of social capital contribute to the development of organizational resilience. While stronger structural capital improves proactive organizational resilience, relational capital only improves reactive organizational resilience. The findings have both theoretical and managerial implications for post-disaster resilience building.