Survival mode under cascading disruptions: Digitalization, selective openness, and resource reconfiguration for economic sustainability

Firms increasingly operate in conditions of cascading disruptions, where geopolitical tensions, trade and tariff shifts, cyber risks, climate events, migration pressures, and public-health shocks interact and amplify each other. Yet we still lack fine-grained understanding of how resource-constrained firms in developing economies convert such entangled disruptions into coherent adaptation patterns that preserve economic sustainability. Drawing on a multiple case study of 22 Colombian firms across manufacturing, commerce, and services we analyze how organizations interpreted crisis interdependence and enacted responses under radical uncertainty. We identify an emergent, cross-case pattern that respondents repeatedly described through the logic of survival mode: a temporary adaptive operating logic characterized by accelerated decision–action cycles, rapid operational reconfiguration, optimization and redeployment of existing resources, and digitalization to maintain coordination and market access. We develop an inductive model linking crisis layers (market volatility, operational constraints, regulatory disruption, and supply-network fragility) with corresponding survival-mode responses, highlighting the role of selective openness—especially intensified customer collaboration—in sustaining viability. The study contributes to research on resilience and organizational survival under complexity by clarifying how cascading disruptions become actionable inside firms and by offering a structured repertoire for managers and policymakers seeking to strengthen small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) viability in turbulent markets.