From Sustainable Practices to SME Resilience: An Integrative, Systems‐Based Review With Propositions

ABSTRACT

This integrative review examines how sustainable practices foster organizational resilience in small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), supporting long‐term sustainable development. Existing resilience models often overlook SMEs' distinctive challenges—limited resources and managerial short‐termism—whereas research linking day‐to‐day sustainable practices to resilience remains limited. To address this gap, the study develops a systems‐based model of sustainability‐driven SME resilience that incorporates motivational “drivers” and contextual “enablers,” extending existing resilience frameworks to better fit the SME‐specific context by addressing the liability of smallness and short‐termism. Drawing on a systematic search of 511 Scopus‐indexed documents and applying general systems theory (GST), the analysis identifies key corporate sustainability practices (e.g., geo‐social development, resilience development, and knowledge sharing) that strengthen SMEs' capacities for anticipation, coping, and adaptation. The resulting conceptual model and 11 testable propositions advance theory by specifying mechanisms, boundary conditions, and observable implications for resource‐constrained SMEs, while offering practical guidance for managers and policymakers.