Bricolage, Community Support, and Resilience: Women SME Owners Rebuilding After the 2023 Türkiye Earthquakes

This study investigates how women business owners restored operational continuity following the 2023 Türkiye earthquakes. While prior crisis management research recognises the importance of community support, improvisation, and resilience in recovery, these mechanisms have rarely been examined as a connected and gendered process. Drawing on 20 in‐depth cases from heavily affected provinces, this study develops the Gendered Bricolage Pathways Model—a mechanism‐based framework explaining how women‐owned SMEs progress from disruption to stability. Findings reveal a four‐stage recovery pathway: (1) community support functions as survival capital, enabling early operational restart; (2) bricolage serves as adaptive problem‐solving under resource scarcity; (3) routine reconstruction restores predictability and workflow stability; and (4) resilience emerges as a capability rebuilt through operational regularity rather than as a personal trait. Institutional access moderates recovery pace, while caregiving responsibilities condition the feasibility of each stage. The study advances crisis management theory by conceptualising resilience as a process outcome of restored operations and by identifying gendered time scarcity as a structural determinant of recovery speed. Practical implications highlight the need for care‐sensitive and low‐barrier institutional programmes that can accelerate SME continuity in disaster‐affected contexts. The findings provide actionable insights for policymakers and crisis managers designing equitable, community‐integrated recovery systems.