Publication Type

PhD Dissertation

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

12-2025

Abstract

Against the backdrop of increasing uncertainty in the global business environment, international scholarly attention to individual, group, and organizational resilience has risen significantly. Chinese export trading enterprises—especially small and medium-sized export trading enterprises(SMETEs)—face disadvantages such as small scale, weak financing capacity, limited access to information, and low brand strength. After experiencing shocks from digital transformation, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia–Ukraine war, and the European energy crisis, these firms have been compelled to reconsider how to enhance their organizational resilience in order to adapt to an increasingly turbulent external environment.

First, this study selects Company H as a representative case of reform among small and medium-sized export trading enterprises. It finds that under the information shock triggered by digital transformation, SMETEs enhance organizational resilience by engaging in value co-creation and interactive understanding with downstream overseas customers and upstream domestic manufacturing factories in areas such as product design and development. This leads to a cooperative model of joint design, joint development, shared costs, and shared risks, which strengthens synergies and reduces development costs, thereby improving organizational resilience. Value co-creation must be mutually oriented, because only through the joint participation of both the customer side and the supply side can close relationships between small and medium-sized traditional export firms and their upstream and downstream partners be consolidated.

Second, the study conducts a questionnaire survey of 136 small and medium-sized export trading enterprises (SMETEs) to empirically test the case study findings. Statistical analysis shows that, compared with value co-creation with downstream enterprises, value co-creation with upstream enterprises is more effective in enhancing organizational resilience. In addition, resource orchestration capability plays a fully mediating role and a mediating-path moderating role in the relationship between upstream and downstream value co-creation and organizational resilience. However, it is worth noting that the positive moderating effect of industry technological intensity on the impact path from resource orchestration capability to organizational resilience is not significant.

From the perspective of value co-creation along the upstream and downstream supply chain, this study deeply examines the impact of value co-creation on the organizational resilience of small and medium-sized traditional foreign trade enterprises, and reveals the underlying mechanism from the perspective of resource orchestration capability. It effectively extends existing research on the antecedents of organizational resilience and provides valuable insights for the many small and medium-sized traditional foreign trade enterprises in China operating in a VUCA environment to explore pathways for enhancing organizational resilience.

Keywords

Small and medium-sized traditional export trade enterprises, Digital disruption, Value co-creation, Resource orchestration capability, Organizational resilience

Degree Awarded

Doctor of Business Administration (Accounting and Finance)

Discipline

Accounting | Finance and Financial Management

Supervisor(s)

FU, Fangjian

First Page

1

Last Page

178

Publisher

Singapore Management University

City or Country

Singapore

Copyright Owner and License

Author

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