How Do Stakeholder Relationships Affect Construction Project Resilience? Unveiling the Complementary Role of Digitalization

Unexpected disruptions make it essential to develop construction project resilience. Stakeholder relationships can shape disruption handling and thus influence project resilience, yet their roles remain debated. Drawing on organizational information processing theory, this study revisits the controversy over stakeholder relationships by examining ambidextrous learning as an underlying mechanism and digitalization as a complement. Survey data were collected from 238 construction projects. The results show that stakeholder relationships are positively related to project resilience. Exploratory learning serves as a crucial underlying mechanism, while exploitative learning exerts no significant mediating effect. Digitalization complements stakeholder relationships in facilitating exploratory learning, thereby supporting project resilience. Theoretically, this study clarifies the role of stakeholder relationships as a critical network-level enabler of project resilience, reveals the distinct roles of exploratory and exploitative learning in temporary, disruption-prone collaborations, and uncovers the complementary role of emerging digitalization in project management. Practically, this study provides managerial insights into enhancing construction project resilience against potential disruptions.