This study examines the differences in dynamic financial resilience between urban and rural small and medium entities (SMEs) and investigates how these differences are affected by SME resourcefulness. SMEs in urban areas generally benefit from higher productivity, stronger innovation capacity, and better access to financial resources, resulting in superior performance during both stable periods and crises. However, empirical evidence on SMEs’ financial resilience, particularly across spatial contexts, remains limited. Addressing this gap, the study adopts a capabilities-based perspective, assessing SMEs’ financial resilience across proactive, responsive–adaptive, and reactive phases. SME resourcefulness, as a key determinant of financial resilience, is captured through behavioural, financial, entrepreneurial, and social dimensions. The empirical analysis is based on a dataset of 251 Lithuanian SMEs. It employs multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) and multi-group structural equation modelling (MGSEM) to compare urban and rural SMEs. The results show that, compared to rural SMEs, urban SMEs demonstrate higher overall financial resilience (latent mean difference = −0.222), with significant differences particularly evident in the responsive–adaptive (−0.287) and reactive phases (−0.173). Access to finance (t = −2.594, p = 0.010) and entrepreneurial knowledge (t = −4.565, p = 0.000) emerge as the main determinants explaining the financial resilience gap between urban and rural SMEs, while mentoring remains the least utilised social resource (mean = 2.90 out of 5). To bridge the gap and enhance rural SMEs’ financial resilience, it is essential to implement policies that expand access to finance, strengthen adaptive financial capacities, and promote mentoring and financial education.
Leckė et al. (Tue,) studied this question.