Högskolan i Skövde

This longitudinal qualitative study examines how globally operating readymade gar-ment exporters from Bangladesh build organisational resilience in order to cope inthe turbulent business environment. We found that at the time of crisis, such as theone caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic, the studied exporters lacked robust-ness, and were not prepared for unexpected external shocks. However, the compa-nies built resilience by adaptation to the situation as well as possible. Their ability tobuild resilience was found to be partly rooted in the local culture. At the time of cri-sis, the companies combined jugaad—a regional cultural practice—with a Westernmindset and management tools. In this study, this unique combination of regionaland Western practices is labelled as jugalbandi. Interestingly, organisational resil-ience which is achieved in this way seems to be temporary: the exporters discardedthe locally-embedded practices when the situation stabilised. Our study challengesthe mainstream views on organisational resilience espoused in earlier research, anddevelops a context-sensitive, culture-embedded framework of resilience building.