Opening the black box of disaster recovery in SMEs: unpacking the antecedent roles of anticipation capabilities, risk management culture and supply chain agility

Purpose This study examines how risk management culture fosters disaster recovery and analyses the serial mediation roles of anticipation capabilities and supply chain agility, while assessing opportunities to improve risk management culture, anticipation capabilities and supply chain agility to enhance disaster recovery. Further, the study examines the necessity of risk management culture, anticipation capabilities and supply chain agility for disaster recovery. Design/methodology/approach We combined Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling, Importance-Performance Map Analysis and Necessary Condition Analysis to explore the sufficient and necessary roles of risk management culture, anticipation capabilities and supply chain agility in enhancing or enabling disaster recovery among a sample of 357 Ghanaian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. Findings The findings suggest that risk management culture and supply chain agility, but not anticipation capabilities, have a positive influence on disaster recovery. Moreover, anticipation capabilities and supply chain agility serially mediate the positive nexus between risk management culture and disaster recovery. Furthermore, the findings indicate that risk management culture and supply chain agility, rather than anticipation capabilities, are necessary for effective disaster recovery. Originality/value We present one of the first attempts to broaden our understanding of the drivers of disaster recovery among SMEs, while also providing managers with actionable insights regarding the sufficient and necessary antecedents of disaster recovery.