The Resource Paradox 2026. Implementing Enterprise Risk Management in Resource-Constrained Universities

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is increasingly relevant to universities because financial volatility, cyber threats, regulatory pressure, infrastructure weakness, climate-related disruption and reputational risk can interact across institutional functions. Yet universities with the least financial, human and technological slack may face the greatest difficulty establishing formal ERM capability. This article defines that condition as the resource paradox: a reinforcing situation in which resource scarcity heightens institutional vulnerability and the need for integrated risk management while simultaneously limiting the capacity to build it. The article develops an international conceptual synthesis of university risk-management literature and verified institutional evidence across Africa, the Americas, Europe, Australia, the Caribbean, the Middle East/Arab region and international sources. The synthesis integrates the Resource-Based View, resource orchestration, Dynamic Capabilities Theory and Institutional Theory. It proposes a causal logic in which resource constraints influence risk exposure, but resource orchestration and organizational capability shape whether scarcity becomes persistent vulnerability or adaptive ERM capability. Four implementation pillars are developed: capacity building, financial sustainability, shared responsibility and governance, and technology-supported ERM. These pillars are translated into a five-stage pathway-Establish, Embed, Coordinate, Digitize and Improve. The article distinguishes established evidence, case-based evidence and conceptual propositions, and offers five propositions for empirical testing. Its main contribution is to shift the ERM question from how much a university can spend to how effectively it can organize existing resources, ownership, governance routines and digital capability to support risk-informed decisions and institutional resilience.