Identifying and Prioritizing Dimensions and Components of Resilience in Knowledge-Based Companies

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 1 PhD Student of Public Administration, Science and Research Unit, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Iran.

2 Professor of Public Administration, School of Management and Accounting, Allameh Tabatabai University

3 Associate Professor of Business Administration, Faculty of Management, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

10.22055/jiops.2025.49356.1493
Abstract
Today, the business environment is fraught with complexity and numerous risks for knowledge-based companies, threatening their survival. Therefore, these companies must enhance their level of resilience against varying environmental conditions. The concept of resilience refers to companies’ preparedness to confront various risks, their ability to overcome them, and their capacity to return to initial operational conditions. Despite the high importance of resilience in knowledge-based companies, this concept has not yet been fully conceptualized, and many of its dimensions remain unknown. Hence, the objective of this research is to identify and prioritize the dimensions and components of resilience in knowledge-based companies. The present research is applied-developmental in terms of its objective and is considered an exploratory mixed-methods study. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews with experts and thematic analysis based on the perspective of Braun and Clarke (2006) were employed. For this purpose, interviews were conducted with 22 purposively selected experts. Furthermore, in the present study, to determine the weight and prioritize the dimensions and components of resilience, a questionnaire was administered to 32 managers of knowledge-based companies, and the data were analyzed using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique. Based on the findings, for the variable of resilience in knowledge-based companies, 4 main categories, 10 sub-categories, and 21 concepts were identified. The identified main dimensions include directional resilience, social resilience, infrastructural resilience, and relational resilience. The findings from the AHP technique also indicated that the directional resilience dimension, with a weight of 0.3369, has the highest priority, followed by the infrastructural resilience dimension with a weight of 0.2768 in second place, and the relational resilience dimension with a weight of 0.2035 in third place. The research results revealed that knowledge-based companies, to overcome variable conditions in the business environment, must enhance their level of organizational resilience, for which a comprehensive set of diverse factors needs to be considered.

Keywords


  • Receive Date 11 May 2025
  • Revise Date 25 August 2025
  • Accept Date 28 August 2025