Resilient Organisations in Uncertain Times:
Innovation, Entreprenurship and The Future of Work

In a world marked by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, organisational resilience has become essential for sustainable performance and societal well-being. Global disruptions such as rapid technological change, geopolitical instability, and environmental and social transformation challenge traditional approaches to leadership, innovation, and employment.

The Euroweek 2026 Conference seeks to advance theoretical, empirical, and practical insights into how organisations can adapt, renew, and thrive in the face of ongoing uncertainty. We invite contributions that examine resilience as a multidimensional construct, encompassing adaptive capacity, dynamic capabilities, innovation potential, and human adaptability.

Research increasingly frames resilience as a dynamic capability that allows organisations to anticipate, absorb, and adapt to shocks (Duchek, 2020). From an engineering and industrial management perspective, this also implies designing systems that maintain functionality under stress through redundancy, modularity, and intelligent adaptation in production, logistics, and service systems.

The integration of Industry 5.0 principles combining human creativity, digital intelligence, and sustainable technologies marks a paradigm shift toward human-centric, resilient, and sustainable industry. Rather than replacing humans, advanced technologies such as AI, robotics, IoT, and cyber-physical systems are used to augment human capabilities, ensuring that progress strengthens adaptability, inclusion, and environmental stewardship.

At the same time, innovation and entrepreneurship remain core drivers of organisational renewal. Empirical studies demonstrate that innovation and resilience jointly enhance performance in turbulent contexts (Garrido-Moreno et al., 2024), while entrepreneurial orientation and self-efficacy foster adaptive behaviour and opportunity recognition under uncertainty (Bullough et al., 2014; Zighan et al., 2022).

Digital transformation and strategic human resource practices contribute further to resilience by enabling continuous learning, collaboration, and agility (Awad & Martín-Rojas, 2024; Georgescu et al., 2024). The central challenge, therefore, is how organisations can design technologically advanced, human-centric, and sustainable systems that sustain innovation, entrepreneurship, and competitiveness in an unpredictable world.

Potential Research Areas

1. Organisational Agility and Strategic Adaptation

Projects are invited that explore the mechanisms through which organisations anticipate, absorb, and respond to disruption. This includes research on adaptive leadership, strategic foresight, dynamic capabilities, and agility frameworks. Contributions may examine how firms balance flexibility with stability, align strategy with environmental turbulence, and institutionalise learning from crises.

2. Innovation Ecosystems and Collaborative Resilience

Resilience increasingly depends on inter-organisational collaboration and the ability to innovate within networks. This sub-theme focuses on innovation ecosystems, partnerships, and open innovation models that facilitate knowledge exchange and resource sharing under uncertainty. Contributions may address how cross-sector alliances, digital platforms, regional clusters, and Industry 5.0 collaborations enhance collective resilience and sustainable competitiveness.

3. Entrepreneurship and Renewal in Uncertain Environment

Entrepreneurial activity represents a key driver of organisational and societal renewal. This sub-theme invites analyses of entrepreneurial behaviour, opportunity recognition, and venture creation in uncertain contexts. It also welcomes practical and engineering-based projects in product innovation, design, and industrial management, as well as studies on intrapreneurship, social entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial ecosystems that foster adaptive and regenerative growth.

4. The Future of Work and Human Resilience

As artificial intelligence, automation, and digitalisation redefine the nature of work, human resilience has become central to organisational sustainability. Topics include workforce adaptability, learning and development, leadership evolution, organisational culture, and well-being in hybrid work models. Contributions may examine how human-centric design and Industry 5.0 technologies support inclusive and meaningful work.

5.Digital Transformation and Resilience by Design

Digital technologies both enable and challenge resilience. This sub-theme seeks conceptual and empirical research addressing digital transformation, data governance, cybersecurity, AI ethics, and resilient system design. Emphasis is placed on how organisations use digital twins, predictive analytics, and data-driven decision systems to anticipate disruptions and ensure operational continuity.

6.Sustainability, Ethics, and Responsible Innovation

Resilience must be grounded in ethical, sustainable, and socially responsible practice. This sub-theme explores how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles are embedded in innovation and entrepreneurship. Topics include responsible management, stakeholder engagement, ethical leadership, and circular and regenerative business models that promote long-term resilience.

7. Institutions, Public Policy, and Resilient Communities

Institutional frameworks and public policy shape both organisational and societal resilience. This sub-theme welcomes analyses of governance, regulation, and policy innovation that foster adaptability and social cohesion. It also invites studies on community resilience, collaborative governance, and the institutional conditions that enable innovation and entrepreneurship in uncertain times.

References

Awad, J. A. R., & Martín-Rojas, R. (2024). Digital transformation influence on organisational resilience through organisational learning and innovation. Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 13, 69. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13731-024-00405-4

Duchek, S. (2020). Organizational resilience: a capability-based conceptualization. Management Review Quarterly, 70, 215–246. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40685-019-0085-7

Garrido-Moreno, A., Martín-Rojas, R., & García-Morales, V. J. (2024). The key role of innovation and organizational resilience in improving business performance: A mixed-methods approach. International Journal of Information Management, 77, 102777. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2024.102777

Georgescu, I., Bocean, C. G., Vărzaru, A. A., Rotea, C. C., Mangra, M. G., & Mangra, G. I. (2024). Enhancing Organizational Resilience: The Transformative Influence of Strategic HRM Practices and Organizational Culture. Sustainability, 16(10), 4315. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16104315

Shatila K, Nigam N, Mbarek S (2025), Entrepreneurial resilience in turbulent times: the role of entrepreneurial orientation and innovation in the Middle East. Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, Vol. 19 No. 5 pp. 1255–1280, doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/JEC-10-2024-0211

Zighan, S., Abualqumboz, M., Dwaikat, N., & Alkalha, Z. (2021). The role of entrepreneurial orientation in developing SMEs resilience capabilities throughout COVID-19. The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 23(4), 227-239. https://doi.org/10.1177/14657503211046849 (Original work published 2022)

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