Navigating the digital paradox: AI-enabled collaboration and organizational resilience

Purpose Drawing on a unified resource-orchestration model, this study examines how artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled inter-firm cooperation influences organizational resilience in manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), through a mediated-moderated pathway involving digital service innovation strategy and leadership cognition. Design/methodology/approach A sequential mixed-methods design was employed: exploratory qualitative construct refinement followed by a time-lagged quantitative survey of 269 SME managers in Viet Nam, analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and the Johnson–Neyman technique. Findings AI-enabled inter-firm cooperation is positively associated with organizational resilience, a relationship positively mediated by an AI-driven digital service innovation strategy. Crucially, the executive's digital paradox mindset negatively moderates this link, revealing a novel cognitive substitution effect. Practical implications SME managers should invest in interoperable AI platforms for automated boundary-spanning data sharing. Furthermore, leaders must recognize that internal paradoxical cognition and external AI networks can functionally substitute for one another in building resilience. Originality/value The study extends an established AI-enablement construct by demonstrating a novel integrative mechanism through which such cooperation translates into organizational resilience. It enriches paradox theory and technology management by shifting focus from structural resource accumulation to cognitive resource substitution as a theorized boundary condition.