Orchestrating the bounce back: resourceful boards, competent owners, and organizational resilience

Organizational resilience refers to the ability of an organization to bounce back from a crisis. Research assessing the impact of corporate governance actors such as boards of directors and institutional investors on organizational resilience is sparse. Complementing Resource Dependence Theory with the Ownership Competence perspective, we examine the role of the board of directors as resource providers in building a resilient organization, and the impact of institutional ownership on this relationship. Using a sample of 4174 individual data points for 1459 organizations based in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic, we find that while shareholder directors have a positive impact on organizational resilience, foreign directors impact it negatively. Additionally, we find that institutional ownership moderates the relationship between different categories of board members and organizational resilience. Our findings offer new insights into the interactive role of corporate governance actors in shaping organizational resilience and highlight the importance of governance structures in enabling organizations to navigate crisis situations.