Overcoming Future Challenges for the Belt and Road Initiative through Building Resilience: Regional Lessons from the Tourism and Retail Industry in Hong Kong

The current pandemic crisis has generated a steep wave of global economic and social recession with unprecedented consequences for international and regional projects, societies at different levels, and even entire nations. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has placed significant pressure on Hong Kong’s tourism and retail sector, the city remains one of the perfect benchmarks for grasping opportunities and overcoming challenges during crises. This study aims to bridge crisis management, organizational learning, and entrepreneurial theories to depict the strategies utilized to anticipate, cope with crises, and build resilience utilized by organizations from the most heavily affected city’s tourism and retail industry. The results of this study provide a theoretically and practically insightful framework for strategizing under adversity that can be further applied in a regional and more general context of the Belt and Road Initiative. The framework also serves as a starting point for a more nuanced discussion on the application of resilience strategies and their character during crises.