Inertia Versus Adaptation: Relational Resilience in Buyer–Supplier Relationships Facing Extreme Disruption

ABSTRACT This research introduces the concept of relational resilience, which reflects the dynamic capacity of a buyer–supplier relationship to absorb external shocks and continue its core function of exchange. Guided by structural inertia theory (SIT), the research explores how relationship age, exchange volume, and multiplexity contribute to relational resilience across both stable periods and times of extreme disruption. Using a large‐scale panel dataset of buyer–supplier relationships and the COVID‐19 pandemic as an exogenous shock, the findings reveal that relational resilience is enhanced by all three mechanisms, but extreme disruptions lessen the protective value of relationship age and exchange volume while strengthening multiplexity's impact on relational resilience. These findings contribute to supply chain resilience theory by introducing a relational perspective of resilience and integrating SIT to identify structural qualities that promote or constrain adaptation. This study also extends SIT by emphasizing the velocity of environmental change as an important contextual factor that rebalances the competing influences of efficiency and structural inertia in supply chain relationships. These extensions offer valuable insights for managing relational dynamics and resilience in buyer–supplier relationships.