Study highlights resilience of small exporters in wartime Ukraine

Researchers have found that smaller Ukrainian exporting firms demonstrate a unique culture of resilience, adapting quickly to maintain communication with their cross-border partners and keep businesses running in a climate of crisis.

A study published in Global Strategy Journal demonstrated the critical role of relational capital—fostering trust, cooperation, and communication with foreign partners—in enabling exporters to survive and adapt to extreme crises.

“At the theoretical level, we examined resilience as both a process and a capability, focusing on the stages of anticipation, coping, and pre-adaptation,” said lead author Oksana Kantaruk Pierre, an assistant professor at the Université de Lorraine’s ICN Business School in Nancy, France.

Pierre’s team interviewed managers and CEOs at Ukrainian exporting firms ranging in size from a handful of employees up to 1,200 personnel. Their industries varied widely—including exports such as wood, media services, pottery and textiles, industrial equipment, cosmetics, media services, IT, decoration and food. The first round of interviews was conducted in February and March 2023, one year after the onset of the full-scale Russian invasion. The investigators followed up with a second round in September 2024.

“We started our interviews by asking our respondents to recall their state of mind, thoughts, and discussions weeks before the full-scale invasion,” Pierre explained. “At that time, media reported warnings . . . about the imminence of the attack, and all of our respondents were aware of what was happening.”

Yet, she said, many respondents “still couldn’t believe that war may begin” or “did not want to believe.” While some foreign partners voiced concern and postponed orders, many adopted a "business as usual" approach. For many in this anticipation stage, a “plan” wasn’t practical, and many chose to adapt to conditions as they came.

Following the full-scale invasion, many businesses faced relocation, destruction of facilities, and disrupted operations. Pierre’s team found that their respondents demonstrated remarkable resilience by maintaining transparent, frequent communication with foreign clients, renegotiating contracts, and adapting delivery and pricing strategies.

“Independently of geographical location or industry, the interviewed CEOs and managers were determined to save their business,” observed study coauthor Raluca Mogos Descotes, a professor of marketing at Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale in northern France. “They were also determined to continue exporting activities despite obvious difficulties with logistics and borders partly closed.”

Mutual trust and cooperation between exporters and their international partners proved essential, with both sides showing flexibility and offering support—sometimes even financial investments—to sustain business activity.

This collaborative approach, rooted in strong relationships and a commitment to meeting obligations, enabled Ukrainian companies to continue exports and adapt creatively to rapidly changing circumstances.

Resilience strategies for exporters differ from those for domestic businesses, owing to the crucial element of cross-border relationships, the investigators explained.

“Concerning foreign clients, communication appears to be the first and most critical task,” observed José Pla-Barber, a professor of economics at the University of Valencia in Spain. According to some respondents, he noted, “important to not disappear,” that communication was “constant,” and that during the first weeks it took place “daily.”

One respondent recalled with humor, “[The employees] probably cursed me for that, but in the chat I wrote, guys, if you are driving your families to Romania, to Moldova, if you’re hiding in your basements, it’s OK, your safety first. But please, for the sake of having a future, take 15 minutes to tell your clients that we stay in touch, and we handle the situation.”

The study may be the first to approach the resilience of smaller exporting firms specifically through the lens of relational capital, the research team observed. Their article offers multi-step insights for managing crises and maintaining business operations in what they identified as the anticipation, coping, and pre-adaptation stages.

“The war is ongoing, and we cannot discuss the full adaptation and recovery from the crisis,” Pierre noted. “Nevertheless, we can report on a few aspects related to changes likely to be sustained over time and to strategic choices already made.”

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