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This paper aims to study the economic effects of Cloud Computing for a sample of Israeli firms. The authors propose a framework that considers how this technology affects firm performance also introducing the indirect economic effects that take place through cloud-complementary technologies such as Big Data and Machine Learning.

The model is estimated through structural equation modeling. The data set consists of the microdata of the survey of information and communication technologies uses and cyber protection in business conducted in Israel by the Central Bureau of Statistics.

The results point to Cloud Computing as a crucial technology to increase firm performance, presenting significant direct and indirect effects as the use of complementary technologies maximizes its impact. Firms that enjoy most direct economic gains from Cloud Computing appear to be the smaller ones, although larger enterprises seem more capable to assimilate complementary technologies, such as Big Data and Machine Learning. The total effects of cloud on firm performance are quite similar among manufacturing and service firms, although the composition of the different effects involved is different.

This paper is one of the very few analyses estimating the impact of Cloud Computing on firm performance based on country microdata and, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the first one that contemplates the indirect economic effects that take place through cloud-complementary technologies such as Big Data and Machine Learning.

The expected learning outcomes are: to clarify the meaning of resilience and its attributes. To explore the influence of the leader on the development of organizational resilience. To identify critical decisions for the recovery of a business after an external event such as the earthquake that took place on September 19th in Mexico City. To point out the stages for the development of organizational resilience, in the short, and long term: anticipation, coping and adaptation. To clarify the actions that could be taken to prepare an organization for an extreme event or respond to a large-scale crisis.

The case is framed within the context of the September 19, 2017 earthquake in Mexico City. ProActive Strategies’ offices collapsed, causing some people to lose their lives and others to be injured. The protagonist needed to decide if the organization could survive and recover or needed to be closed after the earthquake. After ProActive Strategies survived and recovered, it was possible to identify the main stages to develop organizational resilience in this organization: anticipation, coping and adaptation. Also, the paper provides empirical evidence about how organizational resilience is anchored in the attributes at individual and community levels that include human, economic, social and political capitals, enhanced by technological capital. Furthermore, the enablers of resilience add external entities and the ecosystem at a macro-level, considering political, social and economic aspects of the context.

The study level and expertise required to address this case is medium. The richness of the discussion from the perspective of the students is related to the possibility to empathize with the protagonist and the different actors involved and to build on previous experience with crisis management to observe the potential risks and courses of action. Moreover, the professor also requires taking a neutral position to balance the requirements from a humanitarian perspective, with the business needs.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human resource management.