ABSTRACT
Microenterprises have been valued for the development of emerging economies across demography. Though the opportunities of growth for microenterprises vary significantly across countries, their susceptibility to business environment-driven vulnerabilities, especially in emerging markets, has been of avid research interest. This study makes a novel contribution in viewing mindfulness as a differentiator in building resilience of microenterprises. Equating the need for disaster resilience to post-COV1D 19 business remodelling for microenterprises in emerging markets, the study delves into qualitative multi-case research to propose an extension of the model of microenterprises' survival postCOVID 19 pandemic by including mindfulness as a component. Three failed enterprises in three different sectors are taken as distinct experiments of structural, cognitive, and relational failure due to pandemic-induced disruptions. In this naturalistic enquiry, we validate the role of social capital in building resilience through detailed within-case descriptions and interpretations. Further, mindfulness is explored in the context of microenterprise resilience to build cognitive flexibility and alertness.