Investigating Urban Resilience Through a Resource-Based View Framework: Evidence from an Empirical Survey

Urban Resilience refers to the ability of a city to absorb, adapt and transform in the face of a disturbance. Such a concept is increasing in importance as the continuous growth of cities leads them to face new uncertainties, challenges and often significant disruptions. Most extant literature focuses on the development of frameworks and indices that measure urban resilience. However, due to the inherent complexity of the concept as well as to the variety of research perspectives, the existence of several frameworks is quite confusing. Also, such frameworks fail to reveal how different urban factors affect resilience and the way it acts on the urban scale. The study aims to contribute to address such limits by investigating the main urban characteristics affecting resilience. Using a Resource-based view (RBV) perspective, the research develops a theoretical framework which links resources of urban systems (economic, social and environmental), urban abilities (leadership and governance, preparedness, cooperation and infrastructures and resources), and resilience capacities (absorptive, adaptive and transformative). The theoretical framework is then empirically tested through an online survey sent to a sample of urban stakeholders, namely, policy makers, emergency services, public organizations, academics, experts, infrastructure employees, public and private associations and organizations. The empirical analysis provides scholars with knowledge on the main factors that affect resilience and enables policy makers to better understand the way urban resilience arises based on the interrelationship between urban resources and capabilities.