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This paper aims to theoretically and empirically demonstrate the role played by business continuity management (BCM) to address risks such as trade conflicts and natural disasters. This paper also answers whether compliance with international standards such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 22301 is adequate.

A case study of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is conducted to examine how a robust end-to-end BCM system has been established in two decades and in what way it has helped Huawei to efficiently maintain growth under pressure, such as being added to the “Entity List” and the pandemic.

Huawei case contributes to BCM theory in its approach to establishing the BCM system and its well-established BCM model. Huawei establishes and continually improves its BCM system by applying the Plan (establish), Do (implement and operate), Check (monitor and review) and Act (maintain and improve) cycle. Characterized as 4Ps: BCM policy, BCM process, incident management plan and business continuity plan, Huawei BCM system is shaped into a loop with end-to-end BCM process, covering all steps along its value chain – from suppliers and partners to Huawei itself and then on to its customers – with key initiatives for all domains such as R&D, procurement, manufacturing, logistics and global technical services. In practice, implementing international standards such as ISO 22301 enables Huawei to develop business continuity but not enough. Optimizing the BCM system is an ongoing effort, and BCM maturity is ever present: continually improving Huawei’s own BCM system and benchmarking against best practices available worldwide.

Apart from the case study, other methods such as counter-factual analysis can be used to further test whether Huawei’s BCM system is cost-effective. Another direction for future study is whether suggested BCM maturity levels should be supplemented into ISO 22301. In the digital age, how to use digitalization to ensure business continuity is a current issue not just for practitioners such as Huawei but also for researchers worldwide.

In practice, implementing international standards such as ISO 22301 enables Huawei to develop business continuity but not enough. Optimizing the BCM system is an ongoing effort, and BCM maturity is ever present: continually improving Huawei’s own BCM system and benchmarking against best practices available worldwide.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to focus on how an organization continually improves the suitability, adequacy and effectiveness of its BCM system, with special attention to standards compliance.

This study aims to investigate how organizations from different sectors interpret the meaning of business continuity management (BCM) in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A survey was conducted to capture the views of organizations across five different sectors. The sample consisted of ten senior managers; two from the banking sector; two from the supply chain sector (agricultural and food supply chains); two from the tourism sector; two from the services sector; and two from the higher education sector. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. One manager from each sector represented a local business/enterprise and the other represented an international business/enterprise.

It was found that different organizations/businesses understood BCM differently. Therefore, a variety of interpretations have been obtained.

This study sheds light on how different organizations understand BCM in times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. By understanding the different interpretations, it becomes clearer whether or not these organizations have applicable business continuity plans in place.

This is the first study to investigate the different interpretations of the meaning of BCM across different business sectors. The majority of the existing studies on BCM discuss the process from the perspective of a single business or sector. The study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, a period that witnessed prolonged and critical disruptions facing almost all businesses and organizations and which threatened the survival of some of them.

This research examines the influences of organizational contexts (i.e. firm size, international level, tier level, export level, product brand and IATF 16949 - an international quality management certification in the automotive industry) on business continuity management (BCM) (i.e. leadership, strategy, planning, application and maintenance).

Data were collected from 216 automotive parts manufacturers in Thailand. Regression analysis was used to test hypotheses.

The study found that firm size, international level, tier level, export level and product brand had significant positive impacts on overall BCM and every component, except for the insignificant effect of tier level on strategy. IATF 16949 had insignificant impacts on overall BCM and all components, except for maintenance.

This is one of the first research studies to investigate the influences of organizational characteristics on business continuity management.

Trade unions are the political arm of the working class, economically active masses, whilst industrial action is a demonstration of the will to reach their objectives. However, the crippling of systems through such contradicts business continuity. Yet, the opposite is true for a natural disaster that traumatises the union member and has a direct impact on their well-being. Inculcating a service continuity and resilience in government, with trade unions as majority stakeholders, may be a challenge. Moreover, it is further complicated by the African perspective, which will become prevalent in the author’s deliberations, as the trade union landscape is open to revolutionary Marxism, Socialism and Capitalistic precepts and concepts. Testing the problem and solutions with the period model produces evidence that purports a future praxis for business continuity management (BCM) that involves trade union representatives and their members. Ultimately, trade unions, cumbersome as they may seem, have much to offer as far as human resources, mass membership, knowledge and skill are concerned. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

An action learning approach linked to the period model to answer five research questions, namely: What is the actual modus operandi of trade unions with regard to business continuity and resilience?; What is the actual interest of union representatives in the understanding and implementation of BCM and resilience standards and concepts?; What would be required to utilise trade union platforms for the purposes of BC induction and awareness?; How will BCM certification for trade union stewards affect or impact on their industrial actions or campaigns?; How can the BCM fora develop a theory and possible praxis, to involve trade unions as part of the business continuity and resilience programme of an organisation?

The findings are as follows: the period model works as an agent of action learning. The likelihood of trade unions to participate in business continuity outside of labour action is commendable. Trade union representatives are keen on being certified as BCM practitioners. BCPs are inclined to fail with industrial action when involving trade union representatives. The BCM Policy and ISO 22301 standards bring about a good understanding of the roles of BC practitioners and union representatives in a crisis period.

Research was limited to the pilot site, i.e. The Government Pensions Administration Agency – South Africa.

The paper brings about a new dimension to a business continuity programme, where the trade unions are no longer an interested party but rather they become active members of a business continuity team.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the nature of the business continuity management (BCM) process and to frame it within wider literature on the performance of socio-technical systems. Despite the growth in BCM activities in organisations, some questions remain as to whether academic research has helped to drive this process. The paper seeks to stimulate discussion within this journal of the interplay between organisational performance and BCM and to frame it within the context of the potential tensions between effectiveness and efficiency.

The paper considers how BCM is defined within the professional and academic communities that work in the area. It deconstructs these definitions in order to and set out the key elements of BCM that emerge from the definitions and considers how the various elements of BCM can interact with each other in the context of organisational performance.

The relationships between academic research in the area of crisis management and the practice-based approaches to business continuity remain somewhat disjointed. In addition, recent work in the safety management literature on the relationships between success and failure can be seen to offer some interesting challenges for the practice of business continuity.

The paper integrates work in safety, crisis and risk management with BCM in order to identify the main areas of overlap and synergy between these areas of academic research. By definition, the need for business continuity represents the risks and cost of failure in organisational performance in the absence of continuity. This calls into question the effectiveness of organisational processes around decision making, control, and strategic management. The paper sets out a series of issues that are in need of further research.

The paper draws on some of the practice-based definitions of BCM and highlights the limitations and challenges associated with the construct. The paper sets out challenges for BCM based upon theoretical challenges arising in cognate areas of research. The aim is to ensure that BCM is integrated with emerging concepts in other aspects of the management of uncertainty and to do so in a strategic context.

Academic research on performance reflects both the variety and the multi-disciplinary nature of the issues around measuring and managing performance. Failures in organisational performance have also invariably attracted considerable attention due to the nature of a range of disruptive events. The paper reveals some of the inherent paradoxes that sit at the core of the BCM process and its relationships with organisational performance.

This paper investigates the relationships between the core elements of a BCM system and SCRES constituents, i.e. visibility, agility, flexibility, velocity and collaboration. An explorative multiple case studies methodology was adopted, consisting of organizations in the retail, manufacturing and humanitarian sectors that had to withstand the impact of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (January to June 2020).

The paper adopts an interpretative approach to understand organizational behavior through observations. The source of data comes from in-depth interviews as well as the scrutiny of available official documents for triangulation. The unit of analysis is the organizations internal supply chain with a specific focus on their BCM system and SCM arrangements.

This paper shows how core BCM practices have a direct impact on supply chain resilience constituents. Specifically practices such as establishing a crisis management committee and risk assessments boost constituents such as agility and flexibility. This advances the theoretical discussion on supply chain resilience, while providing practical examples for organizations to build a response to pandemic incidents.

This paper validates the contribution of business continuity management to supply chain resilience, a concept that has mainly been linked to practices such as risk management. In this regard, this paper enriches the discussion. Secondly, the analysis explains how specific BCM practices worked during the first wave of the pandemic and how they were implemented, providing a clear path for supply chain resilience.

This research aims to examine the influences of preceding implementation phases on succeeding phases of business continuity management (BCM) comprising leadership, strategy, planning, application and maintenance.

Data were gathered from 216 automotive parts manufacturers in Thailand. Descriptive statistics were employed to measure the maturity level of BCM implementation components. Path analysis of structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses.

The study's findings found that the intensity of BCM elements decreased following the implementation phases. Leadership and strategy had the highest mean score, while maintenance had the lowest. Preceding phases had significant positive effects on succeeding phases. The direct impact of leadership on maintenance was much weaker than its indirect impact through strategy, planning and application.

This is one of the first examples of empirical research to investigate the sequential links between preceding and succeeding BCM implementation components. Strategic BCM elements and systematic implementation can improve and sustain BCM in the automotive parts industry in Thailand.

This is an exploratory study that aims to explore the use (practice) of business continuity management (BCM) and the effectiveness of the BCM approach adopted by organizations from a variety of sectors.

The sample of this study consisted of 250 organizations from a variety of sectors: 80 industrial; 15 banking; 25 insurance; 130 services organizations. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data.

The findings indicated that there is an increased awareness about the use of BCM across different sectors including the industrial, service, banking and insurance and that the current use of BCM is irrespective of a number of organizational characteristics.

This research investigates the current use/practice of BCM across a variety of sectors. It is therefore considered a significant preliminary study that paves the way for further future research studies related to the use of BCM in the Middle East. It also clarifies the current levels of application of BCM which subsequently facilitates and supports the wider adoption of BCM and commitment to adopt the best practices related to it across different sectors.

To the best of author's knowledge, this is one of very few studies which focus on the use/practice of BCM and approach’s effectiveness that have been conducted in the Middle East and in Jordan in particular. It reveals the extent to which BCM is being adopted across the various sectors which in turn reflects the levels of understanding and awareness of the significance of this process for today's organizations and for the continuity of their critical business functions during the occurrence of different sorts of disruptive incidents.

The aim of this study is to determine whether large construction companies practise business continuity management (BCM), the type of crises which companies deem impactful for their organizations and their reactions to certain crises.

A survey of 22 large construction companies in Singapore was conducted.

The survey suggests that, although the importance and usefulness of having BCM are clear, the receptiveness of BCM among large construction firms is far from ideal. In today's unpredictable environment, there is a tendency for catastrophes to occur unexpectedly and to bring about undesired consequences. A large majority of the respondents did not have any form of BCM practices within their organization. This is mainly because they were unaware of what constitutes a business continuity plan.

The survey was conducted only among large construction companies; as such, the results obtained cannot be used to represent the entire industry. However, focusing on the larger companies is strategically correct for a start, because BCM‐related initiatives, if any, tend to be undertaken by the larger companies, as they have the necessary resources, such as manpower and finance, to do so.

To be successful in promoting BCM in the building industry, the relevant authorities in Singapore, such as the Building and Construction Authority, should demonstrate to construction companies how beneficial BCM is for the company's operations, so that they can be better equipped to meet future challenges more confidently.

As with all other businesses, an effective business continuity plan is critical to companies in the construction industry. Being in an industry that is constantly subjected to internal and external pressure, construction companies are likely to incur costly errors if they are caught unprepared when a crisis strikes. This is the first ever study of BCM in the construction industry.

Does internal integration extend to business continuity and to managing supply chain disruptions (SCDs)? Despite the voluminous literature on supply chain integration, evidence on its effectiveness on risk management and disruption response is scant. The purpose of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of business continuity management (BCM) and of supply chain involvement in BCM (SCiBCM) on reputational and operational damage containment in the face of SCDs.

This study draws on Simons’ Levers of Control framework to explain how the involvement of supply chain in BCM affects firm capabilities in containing damages caused by major SCDs. The authors develop and test hypotheses by analyzing large-scale questionnaire responses from 448 European companies.

Results of the data analysis suggest that BCM improves reputational damage containment, whereas SCiBCM improves operational damage containment. The findings also show that the significant effects of BCM and SCiBCM on reputational and operational damage containment, respectively, were amplified for the firms facing higher supply chain vulnerability. Post-hoc analysis further reveals the complementarity effect between BCM and SCiBCM for the companies exposed to high supply chain vulnerability.

Evidence on the effects of BCM and its internal integration on performance is limited. This study offers empirical evidence on the topic. Also, while supply chain integration can improve information sharing and coordination, some may not fully recognize its potential benefits in addressing SCDs. This study theoretically and empirically demonstrates the role played by internal integration, in the form of SCiBCM, in improving organizational damage containment efforts.