Patient Capital and Supply Chain Resilience: A Dynamic Capabilities Perspective

Against the backdrop of global value chain restructuring, geopolitical tensions, and recurrent external shocks, supply chain resilience has become a central concern for firms. While prior studies highlight technological, relational, and policy-related drivers of resilience, limited attention has been paid to the role of capital characteristics, particularly patient capital. Based on dynamic capabilities theory, this study develops a “capital–capabilities–resilience” framework to examine how patient capital contributes to firms’ supply chain resilience. Using panel data of Chinese listed manufacturing firms from 2013 to 2024, this study employs multi-stage regression analyses and extensive robustness tests. The results show that patient capital significantly enhances supply chain resilience along both stability and efficiency dimensions, with innovation, absorptive, and integrative capability acting as key mediating mechanisms. Further heterogeneity analyses indicate that the positive association between patient capital and supply chain resilience is more pronounced among state-owned enterprises, larger firms, and firms with weaker financial performances. This study advances the literature by theorizing patient capital as a capability-enabling financial arrangement and by demonstrating how it contributes to supply chain resilience through dynamic capability development. The findings also offer policy implications for promoting long-term-oriented capital to enhance resilience in an uncertain global environment.