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This paper aims to provide an overview of the role that scenario planning can play in managing the uncertainty caused by changing and unpredictable competitive dynamics.

This viewpoint reflects both the practical experience of strategic planners, combined with an academic insight into the advantages of using scenario planning as a management tool.

Firms can develop corporate level strategy and gain long-term certainty in their strategic approach by using scenario planning to strategize in a way that allows them to prepare for multiple futures, with multiple strategies.

Firms can manage environmental uncertainty and turbulence by being “mentally prepared” to address the future by evaluating the critical uncertainties driving turbulence and the strategic options relevant to a number of possible future outcomes.

A unique combination of practical experience fused with academic knowledge on harnessing the power of scenario planning to manage uncertainty and develop organizational strategy.

This paper examines the role that corporate culture plays in shaping firm performance. It specifically examines how a corporate crisis event resulted in adaptive cultural responses that may be inhibiting the level of firm innovation.

The research presents a longitudinal analysis of risk and innovation words contained in Barclays Plc corporate annual reports.

In the wake of corporate fraud and punitive charges, Barclays Plc introduced a number of new governance structures and a new code of conduct for employees. These initiatives moved the firm away from excessive risk taking, but may have also placed an emphasis on risk aversion at the expense of innovation.

The insight provided by this viewpoint and analysis may help CEOs and their management teams to better understand how changes in strategy, and or new corporate initiatives, create adaptive changes in culture. These changes, whilst making improvements in one area, may detract from performance in other parts of the firm.

This paper provides a highly original look at corporate culture and has employed an innovative methodology to underpin the analysis and subsequent viewpoint.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how two media firms, Sky Plc and Pearson Plc, adapted, reconfigured, and transformed their businesses to meet the demands of an operating environment characterized by inexorable changes in digital technologies.

The over-arching vision, corporate strategies, and financial performance for both firms are examined over two business cycles.

These findings illustrate why firms need to create a portfolio business that takes advantage of the market opportunities created by innovative digital technologies, while off-setting the risks associated with digital disruption.

Business leaders should not dispense with the basic principles of good strategic business unit portfolio management in their attempts to take advantage of the market opportunities provided by a disruptive digital environment.

This paper provides a highly original insight into how two firms placed ambitious levels of growth at the heart of their corporate strategies to seize the market opportunities provided by an increasingly digital operating environment.

This paper aims to discuss the emerging theme of risk aversion in entrepreneurs following high levels of industry consolidation.

This paper is a viewpoint on the authors’ opinion and interpretation of industry consolidation.

The UK Independent TV Production Industry has experienced a remarkable degree of consolidation with corporate acquisitions and mergers changing the size, shape and revenue distribution among firms in the industry. In addition, entrepreneurs appear to be more risk averse in terms of entering the industry.

If the trend in entrepreneurs in the UK TV Production Industry being more risk averse continues, then the number of new startup firms will fall and that could put the future of the industry at jeopardy.

This paper presents an interesting observation on the impact of consolidation of the UK Independent TV Production Industry, in so far as, entrepreneurs appear to be becoming more risk averse.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a strategic commentary on the interconnected areas of corporate strategy and employee performance by illustrating how two organizations adapted and transformed their businesses to the demands of digitalization and new media.

A longitudinal analysis (1995-2015) of employee productivity was calculated as operating income per employee for each firm and benchmarked against industry data.

Both firm’s corporate objectives and strategies were focused on ambitious levels of growth and the opportunities provided by an increasingly digital environment. However, the firms had transformed their businesses in different ways with distinct employee productivity performance outcomes.

This paper provides case studies of strategic transformation and argues that HR management strategies and practices need to be continually evaluated to assess their employee productivity in an uncertain digital operating environment.

This paper provides a longitudinal analysis of how media firms, Sky Plc and Pearson Plc, adapted, reconfigured and transformed their businesses to meet the demands of an operating environment characterized by inexorable changes in digital technologies. It presents data and conclusions on how the management of “human resources” had delivered different employee productivity outcomes over the long term.

Dynamic capabilities (DCs) help media firms adapt to rapidly changing environments. The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive literature review of studies of DCs in strategic management research with a view to understanding its implications for the management of media organizations. Essentially, it fertilizes on the idea that the concept of DC is useful and vital for answering various critical questions regarding the challenges that media organizations are currently facing.

This study builds on a systematic literature reviewing design as the research methodology. It aims to identify, critically evaluate, and integrate factors, dimensions, and findings on studies of DCs in strategic management research and builds knowledge transfers to the field of strategic management research in the media industry.

The study shows that the DC framework helps media firms effectively respond to changing environments. The conceptual DC framework has implications for media strategy practice. Results indicate a considerable growth in the number of papers published related to the DCs in media organizations from 2003 to 2018.

The study qualifies the relevance and validity of the DC framework in strategic management research for the field of strategic media management. It explores a research agenda in this domain by precisely explaining the significant trends in the theory of DC to shape managerial strategies in the media industry.

This paper argues that certain CEO characteristics are a significant predictor of relative firm R&D spending and innovation performance and that executive boards need to be remain vigilant of their CEO’s performance by ensuring that they have the capabilities to drive innovation-led growth strategies.

The successful economic recovery from the global pandemic will be founded on the type of innovation-led growth that takes advantage of opportunities presented by a profoundly different competitive landscape. This paper demonstrates that certain CEO characteristics (age, education, career experience) are a significant predictor of relative firm R&D spending and innovation performance.

CEO performance is an increasingly important issue for many executive boards who are tasked with assessing whether or not incumbent CEOs and potential new CEO hires are equipped with the skills to drive innovation-led growth strategies. The findings will help executive board members and headhunting agencies to assess a CEO’s orientation toward innovation.

This paper presents a review of how certain CEO characteristics act as a predictor of relative firm R&D spending and innovation. It presents the main findings from both academic and business sources in a way that is easily accessible to executive boards, senior management and headhunting agencies.

CEO turnover and chronic corporate underperformance are examined through the lens of Transgenerational Response.

The criteria for investigating Transgenerational Response in corporations consisted of identifying a Critical Corporate Incident, the number of corporate generations and the resultant corporate financial performance.

The evidence presented in the case studies illustrates how a Critical Corporate Incident has produced the consequential effect of chronic financial performance in the years following the incident.

These case studies have not presented the “actual” adaptive responses, inherited attitudes and behaviours that have subsequently embedded themselves in a new corporate culture, post the Critical Corporate Incident, to the detriment of the long-term health and performance of each firm.

Examining CEO turnover and chronic corporate underperformance through the lens of Transgenerational Response means that business leaders can identify how a historic event has affected the performance of their firm in subsequent generations. With this knowledge in hand, they will be able to examine the inherited attitudes and behaviours, organizational policies, strategy and adaptive cultural routines that have combined to consolidate the firms chronic under performance.

This is a highly original, evidence based, idea that has the potential to reshape our current understanding of CEO turnover and underperforming firms. It will help business leaders identify how a historic event has affected the performance of a firm in subsequent generations.

This paper provides further evidence on a thought-provoking idea, Transgenerational Response, which was previously presented in this journal. It argues that a corporate crisis event can create dysfunctional adaptive attitudes and behaviors which subsequently become embedded in the corporate culture of a firm to the detriment of its long-term performance.

A multi-method approach consisting of longitudinal content analysis of innovation and risk words in corporate annual reports and quantitative financial analysis divided the data into ‘what happened before the crisis event’ and ‘what happen after the crisis event’.

Case studies for AIG and Yahoo illustrate how a crisis event produced chronic financial performance and adaptive cultural responses that include a fall in innovation and an increased emphasis on risk in the years following the incident.

This paper does not make claims of generalisability of the findings. However, it does provide a platform for future researchers to develop this line of reasoning and perhaps extend it to consider why some organizations demonstrate greater levels of resilience when faced with a crisis.

Identifying a Transgenerational Response means that business leaders can identify how a historic event has affected the performance and cultural dynamics of their firm over time. As such, it will be easier to manage the inherited cultural attitudes and behaviours that have combined to consolidate a firms chronic underperformance.

This highly original, evidence-based idea, has the potential to reshape our current understanding of corporate turnarounds, CEO turnover, underperformance and adaptive cultural change.