Knowledge management and relational capital to support business resilience. Evidence from the Italian agro-food sector

The recent pandemic has changed the reference context of companies and imposed significant changes on them to react to the crisis and contain its effects. The paper aims to investigate the managers' contribution to overcoming the crisis both in managing internal production processes and through the networks and relationships that they can activate or use. This research contributes to the literature highlight the contribution of relationships to companies' value and managers' role. The results show that managerial skills are drivers of critical success factors for the manager's professional qualities and the ability to manage and implement solid formal relationships in the reference territory and through networks.