Business Resilience and SMEs Business Success: The Role of External Integration

Business resilience research is highly desirable because there is a compelling need to investigate the perilous environments in which small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operate. Despite the scattered literature on definitions, measures, and variables influencing the concept, academic interest in business resilience research has grown dramatically. As a result, to gain a competitive advantage, entrepreneurs must be capable of managing their relationships with their customers and suppliers. Only long-term competitive advantage will assure a business's survival and success. Business resilience alone will not assure a company's survival and success. Since SMEs have limited financial, talent, technological, and knowledge resources, their long-term business performance is heavily reliant on a variety of other elements, including supplier capabilities and customer integration. Furthermore, SMEs' strong relationships with their customers and suppliers allow them to gain access to information on the most recent client preferences and tastes, technology, and new techniques of innovation. There are few studies that have looked at the impact of external integration on the relationship between business resilience and success in Malaysian SMEs. As a result, the current research seeks to evaluate the moderating impact of customer and supplier connections on the relationship between business and success of Malaysian SMEs in the manufacturing industry. Finally, this research will add to the existing body of knowledge in business resilience, external integration, and the success of Malaysian SMEs in the manufacturing industry. This study examines terminology related to SMEs' business resilience and proposes a novel conceptual framework. This conceptual paper investigates the implications of business resilience on business performance in the context of Malaysian SMEs. This research contends that external integration moderates the impact of business resilience on the success of SMEs.