Abstract:
The resilience concept has attracted interest across many fields in the recent years. The
interdisciplinary nature of the concept has led to the existence of numerous definitions,
interpretations and measurement approaches. For this reason, there is no acceptable
universal understanding of resilience across disciplines. Even though the
concept is conceptualized differently in the small retail business field, scholars seem
to commonly relate resilience to the ability of business to adapt to disruptions that
threaten existence. However, resilience measuring has been a highly contested aspect
in the sector. As such, neither key resilience attributes nor universally applicable criteria
for resilience measuring exist in the small retail sector. At the same time, small
retail businesses are increasingly exposed to direct and indirect threats that jeopardize
their resilience prowess. Therefore, it is vital to develop approaches for assessing resilience
levels and monitor changes over time. This paper critically examines current
approaches to developing resilience measurement tools. Thereafter, it proposes the
most applicable approach for developing performance measures of resilience for use in
the small retail business sector. A review of key frameworks for resilience measuring
within climate, community, livelihoods, organizational and business sectors was conducted.
Frameworks and approaches for resilience measuring that has been in use in
the past decade and half were selected. The main focus was on exploring methodological
aspects, resilience attributes and variations in the interpretation of the resilience
concept within different frameworks. It was revealed that the generic application of
frameworks for resilience measuring in the small retail business sector is not appropriate.
Thus, there is a need for developing contextualized frameworks to guide resilience
measurement in the small retail sector.
