Digital Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Resilience in Tourism SMEs Under Geopolitical Turbulence: A Systematic Literature Review with Contextual Insights from Jordan

Abstract

The goal of this review was to examine whether digital entrepreneurship strengthens entrepreneurial resilience among small and medium-sized tourism enterprises operating under severe external disruption. Prior research reveals that digital tools improved market access, operational flexibility, and customer communication, while at the same time, there is evidence of fragmentation in entrepreneurship, tourism, innovation, and crisis-management scholarship. This is particularly apparent in settings that are geopolitically exposed, where there is prolonged uncertainty, reputational spillovers, and uneven demand, leading to shocks distinct from short-lived emergency events. This review addresses this gap by deploying a systematic literature review with a contextual documentary analysis, synthesizing 32 peer-reviewed studies alongside a targeted evaluation of selected official Jordanian sector reports. This review examined the conceptual, methodological, and geopolitical outlines of the discipline, and then examined the leading mechanism by which digital entrepreneurship bolsters resilience. The following were the main results of this review: Firstly, resilience was strengthened through strategic digital pivoting, platform-mediated continuity, direct market access, and more advanced capabilities, such as analytics, automation, and artificial intelligence. Secondly, this review revealed that digital mechanisms are dependent on complementary non-technological enablers, particularly digital literacy, psychological capital, trust in digital systems, and infrastructure readiness.  Thirdly, previous literature was largely developed during the pandemic era, when insufficient attention was paid to chronic geopolitical disruption, long-term adaptation, and the Middle Eastern context. This review developed a Digital Shield framework that conceptualizes digital entrepreneurship as a dynamic capability that will enable tourism SMEs to sense disruption, seize digitally enabled opportunities, and reconfigure operations that are facing turbulence. This review contributes to entrepreneurship and SME scholarship by repositioning tourism within a sectoral context to address broader questions of entrepreneurial adaptation, capability renewal, and resilience in unstable environments. This review concludes with the implications for theory, policy, and future research direction. These implications are especially relevant for Jordan and comparable geopolitically exposed markets.