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Since the late 1970s, the study of the role, structure and functions of personnel management in the United Kingdom has been greatly facilitated by surveys emerging from a number of large‐scale surveys. A major interest in interpreting the data from these surveys has been to evaluate the impact of recession, and, latterly, recovery on the power, structure and roles of personnel departments and personnel specialists in recent years. The survey data are used comparatively to evaluate the empirical plausibility of the different scenarios which have arisen, and to account for the results that emerge.

Despite the episodic pervasiveness of recessions and their destructive impact on firms, a void exists in the management literature examining the intersection between recessions, strategy, and performance. This paper seeks directly to address this research void by reviewing relevant literature spanning the past 20 years and building an integrative framework for future research efforts.

The paper systematically reviews and compartmentalizes articles on the intersection between firm strategy and economic recession published between 1991 and 2010 in widely recognized management and entrepreneurship journals. Concurrently, a theoretical framework is proposed which identifies distinct constructs and linkages related to economic recessions, strategy, and performance.

The findings are twofold. First, the review distils disparate scholarly works on firm behavior and recessions to provide a systematic appraisal and review of what people know and do not know about managing firms through economic downturn. Second, the conceptual framework points to numerous opportunities to scholars interested in conducting research on this timely and important topic.

The paper answers a call by scholars for research that fills a void on systematic diagnosis, prescription, or prophylaxis that can guide managers through recessions.

This paper represents the only research initiative to systematically bring a comprehensive overview of firm strategy in the context of recessionary environments. In effect, it addresses the larger research question: “What do we know about the interplay between firm strategy and recession?”

The authors show how to extend difference-in-differences (DiD) frameworks to Granger (1969) equations, a technique that tests for the parallel trends assumption and measures changes in effect sizes over time. To illustrate how these equations work, they apply them to state cutback management decisions in three recessions.

This study applies quantitative methods. The authors estimate DiD frameworks as Granger (1969) equations.

After empirically analyzing recessions that started in 1990, 2001 and 2007, the authors find that states deepen expenditure cuts when economic declines lengthen and tend to make large cuts to specific expenditure categories instead of spreading cuts equally over all service areas.

The authors offer two contributions of methodological value. First, they introduce the estimation of Granger equations to the study of topics in public administration. Second, they show how this technique helps to evaluate the impact of economic declines on state spending. By instituting these contributions, they offer a unique way of analyzing cutback management decisions.

Most literature on ambidexterity has focused on large firms and on the influence of internal issues in this strategy, that is, organizational structures, top management integration, or internal knowledge management processes (Lutbatkin et al., 2006; Chang et al., 2011; Lee and Huang, 2012). The purpose of this paper is to assess small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)’ ambidexterity strategies during economic recession periods in comparison with those of large firms and identify the managerial external capabilities which are associated with the development of SMEs’ ambidexterity.

A multinomial logit model and a probit model are proposed and tested using data collected from 2,150 Spanish firms during the period of 2009-2013.

The data analysis reveals that SMEs develop more ambidextrous innovation strategies in recession periods than larger firms do. Moreover, two managerial external capabilities have been identified as drivers of SMEs’ ambidextrous behavior in crisis periods: first, the capability of top management to anticipate scenarios; and second, the capacity to acquire adequate external resources through co-operation.

The results show that SME managers wanting to develop ambidextrous strategies in recession periods have to forecast scenarios in terms of innovation difficulties and strengthen their resources through co-operation. Implementation of public policy is encouraged to support these capabilities, thus enhancing SME sustainability in uncertain contexts.

Prior studies have paid little attention to the role of external capabilities. Although their role was revealed as a relevant dimension in the study of SME ambidexterity in adverse contexts by Cao et al. (2010), it remained underexplored. This paper aims to fill this gap.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and understand the impact of the global financial crisis during 2007‐2009. Furthermore, the paper seeks to identiy critical impacts upon the festival and event industry as a result of this crisis and to identify strategies to help members of the industry positively advance in the future.

Festival and event industry professionals were surveyed electronically about their business performance during the current global recession and about their potential strategies for coping in the short term and long term.

It was found that about the half of respondents' profit margins decreased during the recent financial crisis. The respondents indicated that primary factors that impacted the decrease were reduced available sponsorship funding and the general effects of economic recession on all other revenue sources. The festival and event professionals expected the industry to grow and perform at a very conservative pace over the two years (2011 and 2012) following the recession. The strategies that the festival and event professionals intended to use to build successful businesses following the recession were “increase marketing efforts,” “work to reduce expenses overall,” and “increase the use of technology”.

The findings of this study solely reflect the US festival and event industry.

The significant contribution of this study is the analysis and understanding of the direct impact of the recent recession on the festival and event industry and also providing additional knowledge of changes being made by the industry in direct response to the economic recession of 2007‐2009.

The paper describes the first study of its kind to measure the direct impact of the global recession on the festival and event industry. The findings provide a guide to assist festival and event leaders to make better decisions to deal with both the current recession and future downturns. It also serves as a foundation to measure the performance of the festival and event industry in various economic environments.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of an economic recession on human resource information systems (HRIS) investment decisions by asking: Are there high levels of disinvestment in HRIS during a recession? Are there low levels of trust and confidence in HRIS during a recession? Could there be an absence of concerted commitment in leveraging technology, even in the face of an economic crunch?

An HRIS impact questionnaire was used, targeting human resource and financial managers. The data obtained were analyzed using Statistical Programme for Social Sciences (SPSS).

The findings suggest that while a recession is acknowledged, the continued use of HRIS is not considered a risk factor that warrants cost cutting.

This is an original study. It will add value by indicating to management the significance of strategic decision making. The study also points out the need for further research in order to make more sense of certain variables.

Business managers are usually inadequately prepared to lead their companies through a recession. Instead, they tend to treat recession as an externally imposed condition over which they have little control. Their inclination is to react to it as a de facto emergency, often with apprehension and uncertainty, and in some cases, with genuine panic.

Post‐industrial predictions of a rapid growth in new technology homeworking have gained widespread currency to become part of the conventional wisdom. However the evidence, including primary research material, suggests that the claims for new technology homeworking, both regarding its extent and its alleged benefits, have been considerably overestimated. In particular, new technology homeworking by itself does not appear to open up opportunities for women to improve their position in the labour market; the demographic changes predicted for the 1990s may provide a better bet. Nevertheless, there is a danger in assuming that all firms apply the same strategy when employing homeworkers; at least three different variations can be identified and this has important implications for personnel managers. The overestimation of new technology homeworking stands in stark contrast to traditional homeworking where the extent has been considerably underestimated. This marginalisation of traditional homeworking stems in large part from the distortion caused by the conceptual split between private and public realms. The failure to find evidence to support the growth of new technology homeworking leads to a consideration of how the arguments may better be considered as rhetoric designed to advance a certain set of ideas – in particular that set associated with “privatisation” as a political ideology.