'Organisational Resilience and the Future of Business Schools: a Systematic Literature Review and Conceptual Model' Leadership, Organisations, Behaviour and Reputation Research Seminar

Dr Khlystova's research interests include the economics and management of creative industries, organisational and regional resilience theories and research methods in management research. In particular, she is interested in how external shocks moderate and shape organisational resilience and organisational behaviour of companies in different economic sectors. Her earlier research examined how external shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2008 Great Recession crisis affected the behaviour of firms in Europe's creative industries and what resilience strategies they used to overcome them.

Applying systematic literature reviews and mixed methods in her research, Dr Khlystova's work has been published in prestigious journals in the field of business and management, such as the Journal of Business Research, the Journal of Technology Transfer and the International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research. She has delivered several international research projects (e.g. the British Council, the British Academy, the Arts and Humanities Research Council) on the organisational resilience of creative industries in the UK, Kazakhstan and Turkey accelerating research impact.

Dr Khlystova has also organised several international events (e.g. policy forums, roundtables, conferences, business students' competitions) and undertaken many teaching and research roles during her career, with five years of teaching business and management disciplines for undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral students. She holds a PhD in Management from Henley Business School, the University of Reading, and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

The topic of this presentation is 'Organisational Resilience and the Future of Business Schools: a Systematic Literature Review and Conceptual Model'. The seminar will explore how organisational resilience - an organisation's ability to cope with and recover from adversity by adjusting and improving its functions - plays a crucial role in the success of organisations and shapes their future. Previous research demonstrates that business schools have not been immune to the recent crises and challenges; they have accumulated serious gaps in their business and purpose, leading to a lack of resilience.

Based on the systematic literature review, the research study explores how and why some business schools overcome adversity more effectively than others, elaborating on how they can build better resilience strategies for a sustainable future. Two main research themes were distinguished: the purpose and value of business schools and the ability of business schools to adapt. Drawing from the literature on organisational resilience, a conceptual matrix explaining how 'organisational purpose' and 'adaptive capabilities' influence business schools' organisational responses was proposed and four potential states were proposed. These states - fragile, robust, antifragile and resilient - each reflect different organisational responses and scenarios. This conceptualisation contributes to a better understanding of how and why business schools can leverage their future existence and growth in a rapidly changing business environment, which opens fruitful avenues for future research. The manuscript is co-authored with Dr Tatiana Rowson.

The seminar is for an internal audience and will be held on 22 May 2025, 1:00pm, in room 108 of the Henley Business School building, Whiteknights campus. For those unable to attend in person there is also the option to dial in remotely via Microsoft Teams. If you are interested in joining, please contact Alex Baker on a.j.baker@henley.ac.uk

LOBR research seminars are co-ordinated by Professor Bernd Vogel and Dr Anastasiya Saraeva.