The Relationship Between Supply Chain Resilience Capabilities and Business Continuity During Disruptions: Evidence from SMEs in the South South Zone of Nigeria

This study empirically examines the relationship between supply chain resilience capabilities and business continuity during disruption events in small and medium-sized enterprises across the South South geopolitical zone of Nigeria, drawing samples from Rivers, Edo, and Delta States. Supply chain resilience, defined as the capacity to anticipate, respond to, and recover from disruptions while maintaining acceptable service levels, has attracted significant research interest following the compounding disruptions of recent years. Using a quantitative cross-sectional design, structured questionnaires were administered to 175 SME owners and supply chain managers across manufacturing, trade, and service sectors. Resilience capabilities are measured across four dimensions: flexibility, redundancy, agility, and collaboration. Business continuity is assessed through disruption recovery time, revenue loss magnitude during disruptions, and supplier continuity score. Moderated regression analysis is used to test resilience capability dimensions as predictors of business continuity outcomes, with firm size as a moderator. The study draws on supply chain resilience frameworks from the dynamic capabilities literature and recent empirical resilience research from African SME contexts. Findings are expected to demonstrate that flexibility and collaboration are the strongest resilience predictors of continuity, while redundancy is constrained by SME capital limitations. The study contributes empirically validated resilience capability rankings for an under-studied SME context. Recommendations address SME support agencies, commercial banks, and logistics associations in the South South on tailoring resilience building interventions to resource-constrained business environments. Keywords: supply chain resilience, business continuity, SMEs, South South Nigeria, disruption management.