Factors Impacting SMES’ Business Sustainability PostCOVID-19 in Bucharest, Romania, from the Perspective of Resilience

Organizations are undergoing continuous transformations, either due to technological innovation, sustainability practices, various crises (financial crisis, Covid-19), the war in Ukraine, accompanied by changes in regulations specific to each country or required by the pressures of climate change or globalization, so SMEs are constantly faced with problems of various kinds that require an up-to-date assessment of the business, especially when the threats are unpredictable. To stay in business, companies, and consequently their leaders, must adapt and survive with agility when faced with unforeseen or turbulent changes. The general objective is to identify the level of resilience reflected in the corporate sustainability of SMEs in Bucharest in order to strengthen organizational success factors. The study focuses on several resilience factors: leadership, organizational networks and change orientation and the extent to which they impact the business sustainability of SMEs in Bucharest, Romania, in the post COVID-19 period. The method of study is quantitative research in order to achieve the highest level of objectivity, using systematic measurements and statistical analysis. The investigation revealed that of the three structural components, change orientation has the greatest impact on corporate sustainability, followed by organizational networks and leadership. The added value of this study for academia is that the data was collected in Bucharest, Romania, with the aim of contributing to the long-term sustainability of organizations from a resilience perspective. The study is aimed at managers of Romanian SMEs to achieve the sustainability of their company.