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Evidence suggests that corporate entrepreneurship (CE), namely, innovativeness, risk-taking and corporate venturing, enhances a firm’s performance. However, the study of CE in developing markets – particularly in Egypt – is still new and undeveloped. The literature stresses the importance of incorporating environmental factors into the study of CE. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between CE, environmental jolts (unexpected abrupt environmental events such as the Arab Spring) and the firm’s financial performance. Based on the periods before and after the series of anti-government protests known as the Arab Spring, this paper argues that after an environmental jolt, CE will negatively affect financial performance.

This study analyzes and correlates CE, environmental jolts and firm performance in Egypt for a period over 10 years (from 2007 through 2016) using a sample of 94 manufacturing firms listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange. Data were manually collected through archival/secondary data using financial and accounting information from the annual reports released by the firms. These reports were downloaded from the firms’ webpages and the Egyptian Exchange website.

The main results of this paper indicate that environmental factors play a role in the effect of CE on firm performance. Using the 2011 Arab Spring as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper finds that CE’s effect on firm performance is higher pre-jolt and lower post-jolt.

This study provides useful implications for managers and practitioners. Firms need to find new ways of allocating their resources to help provide innovative products and to have a competitive advantage. Although innovation, risk-taking and corporate venturing may have a delayed impact on a firm’s financial performance, managers should evaluate the implications and the success of CE activities in the long-term, not from a short-term perspective.

Building upon the existing literature, this is the first paper to investigate the effect of CE on a firm’s financial performance in Egypt during the Arab Spring. The manufacturing firms listed on the Egyptian Exchange were analyzed in a quasi-natural experiment, taking into account the moderating role of an environmental jolt, namely, the Arab Spring.

This paper aims to examine the effects of 9/11/2001 on strategic variability in the US air carrier industry. The paper also seeks to examine the role of firm size in these relationships.

The paper tests two different perspectives on organizational adaptation to environmental jolts: the punctuated equilibrium model and institutional isomorphism. The two counter hypotheses predict either increasing or decreasing variability in strategic response to 9/11, respectively. This is a longitudinal study of the US air carrier industry. The sample includes the major, national, and large regional air carriers in the US from 1979 (post‐deregulation) to 2008. The data come from archival sources. The study includes measures of variability in differentiation and low cost strategies as well as scope.

Time series regressions examine the effects of the 9/11 jolt on business strategy variability in the majors, nationals, and large regionals. The results lend some support to both perspectives on organizational adaptation. Air carrier size had a significant relationship to strategic variability.

The paper studies the behavior of firms in the US air carrier industry following the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001. It examines two different theoretical approaches to environmental jolts and should provide useful information to both academics and managers who are interested in the effects of significant environmental changes on the behavior of an industry.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships of supply chain resilience (SCR) and absorptive capacity (ACAP) with firm performance by specifically examining the crisis-mitigating effects under an environmental jolt such as COVID-19.

This paper is based on data from a questionnaire survey among Danish manufacturing and transport and logistics companies with 174 respondents.

While the adaptive capabilities associated with both SCR and ACAP are well recognized in extant SCM literature, less is known about their boundary conditions. Examining the functioning of SCR and ACAP amid the COVID-19 crisis, this study finds that both SCR and ACAP related positively to firm performance. However, while the positive relationship between SCR and firm performance was partly mediated by better crisis-mitigation, the results of this study did not find that a similar mechanism was present for ACAP. These results suggest notable refinements of current understandings of SCR and ACAP.

This study is limited by the cross-sectional design, the focus on Danish companies only, and by examining only two industries. Hence, comparisons to other countries and other industries would be of significant interest.

Investing in SCR and ACAP to different extents provides for a complementary mix of longer-term opportunity-generating dynamic capabilities and more short-term crisis-mitigating dynamic capabilities. Firms will benefit from both types of dynamic capabilities during a crisis, but the latter will be more important for mitigating specific crisis impacts.

This paper extends current theorizing on ACAP and SCR by adding the distinction between the long-term opportunity generating dynamic capabilities and short-term crisis-mitigating dynamic capabilities. This paper provides novelty by empirically examining this theorizing by investigating the performance- and crisis-mitigating effect of SCR and ACAP in the light of the COVID-19 crisis.

This paper aims to deepen the understanding of strategic learning through the lens of environmental jolts.

Strategic learning is explained from the three paradigms of organizational learning.

Organizational learning provides a firm foundation to develop and elaborate the concept of strategic learning that can help organizations gain competitive advantage and adaptive capability.

Alan Meyer’s environmental jolt model is meaningful in that it is derived from stimulus–response model, which still explains important aspects of strategic learning.

Embedding a strategic learning capability will help organizations development fit with external environments.

This paper enlightens strategic learning as a Model II learning at the system level from a stimulus-response mechanism and opens up new possibilities of incorporating higher-order capability.

The design of the Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH) currently in use was optimized by its designers in order to attain maximum protection against ballistic impacts (fragments, shrapnel, etc.) and hard-surface/head collisions. Since traumatic brain injury experienced by a significant fraction of the soldiers returning from the recent conflicts is associated with their exposure to blast, the ACH should be redesigned in order to provide the necessary level of protection against blast loads. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

In the present work, an augmentation of the ACH for improved blast protection is considered. This augmentation includes the use of a polyurea (a nano-segregated elastomeric copolymer) based ACH external coating. To demonstrate the efficacy of this approach, blast experiments are carried out on instrumented head-mannequins (without protection, protected using a standard ACH, and protected using an ACH augmented by a polyurea explosive-resistant coating (ERC)). These experimental efforts are complemented with the appropriate combined Eulerian/Lagrangian transient non-linear dynamics computational fluid/solid interaction finite-element analysis.

The results obtained clearly demonstrated that the use of an ERC on an ACH affects (generally in a beneficial way) head-mannequin dynamic loading and kinematic response as quantified by the intracranial pressure, impulse, acceleration and jolt.

To the authors’ knowledge, the present work is the first reported combined experimental/computational study of the blast-protection efficacy and the mild traumatic brain-injury mitigation potential of polyurea when used as an external coating on a helmet.

This study aims to offer a value chain (real options) approach for reducing uncertainty exposure by pursuing a global frictionless trade ethos almost exclusively. Jolts of significant proportion, such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic and corresponding reshoring phenomena observed in Mexico and Central America, enhance the topic’s relevance.

This conceptual study sheds light on heightened systemic uncertainty because of extreme events; proposes a mitigation protocol rooted in real options (ROs); and prescribes incentivizing regional value chains through public–private partnerships (PPPs).

This study identifies a systemic multinational enterprise (MNE) response aimed at mitigating the repercussions of the most recent jolt of significant worldwide proportions and suggests developing regional value chains through PPPs. In doing so, the authors recognize an incipient MNE trend toward nearshoring and backshoring to achieve this end. This phenomenon is relatively underdeveloped in Europe, where fewer than 4% of firms have engaged in backshoring activities, even in the three-millennia-old Basque region. In contrast, last year’s backshoring of global value chains (GVCs) in Mexico and Central America was noticeable.

This study is among the first, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to explore the nearshoring phenomenon as a response mechanism, and it opens avenues for finding better ways to mitigate worldwide uncertainties and exposure to extreme events.

This model would benefit MNEs and governments by keeping their operations running as close to capacity as possible, even when external jolts cause a partial or total system shutdown of MNEs’ GVCs. The proposed solution, namely, PPPs, can achieve these objectives through real options.

A social benefit of the regionalization of MNEs’ GVCs would be helping to resolve societal grand challenges, including lowering their global carbon footprint and reducing poverty. This is because having a regional supply facility close to their home market would not only lead to cost reductions for MNEs but also allow them to conduct more on-site quality control checks.

The regional real options concept offers an excellent opportunity for practitioners and governments to improve MNEs’ success via the mitigation of uncertainties and, concomitantly, the lives of billions of people.

El presente estudio ofrece un enfoque de cadena de valor (opciones reales) para reducir la exposición a la incertidumbre de perseguir casi exclusivamente un ethos comercial global sin fricciones. Los eventos externos de proporciones significativas, como la reciente pandemia de COVID-19 y los correspondientes fenómenos de relocalización observados en México y América Central, aumentan la relevancia del tema.

Este estudio conceptual 1) arroja luz sobre la mayor incertidumbre sistémica debido a eventos extremos, 2) propone un protocolo de mitigación basado en opciones reales, y 3) prescribe incentivar las cadenas de valor regionales a través de asociaciones público-privadas.

Este estudio identifica una respuesta sistémica de las EMN destinada a mitigar las repercusiones de la sacudida más reciente de proporciones significativas en todo el mundo y sugiere desarrollar cadenas de valor regionales a través de asociaciones público-privadas. Al hacerlo, reconocemos una incipiente tendencia de las EMN hacia la nearshoring y la backshoring para lograr este fin. Este fenómeno está relativamente poco desarrollado en Europa, donde menos del 4% de las empresas se han dedicado a actividades de deslocalización, incluso en la región vasca de tres milenios de antigüedad. En contraste, el retroceso del año pasado de las cadenas globales de valor en México y América Central fue notable.

Nuestro estudio es uno de los primeros en explorar el fenómeno de la nearshoring como mecanismo de respuesta, y abre vías para encontrar mejores formas de mitigar las incertidumbres mundiales y la exposición a eventos extremos.

El concepto de opciones reales regionales ofrece una excelente oportunidad para que los profesionales y los gobiernos mejoren el éxito de las empresas multinacionales mediante la mitigación de las incertidumbres y, al mismo tiempo, la vida de miles de millones de personas.

O presente estudo oferece uma abordagem de cadeia de valor (opções reais) para reduzir a exposição à incerteza de buscar quase exclusivamente um ethos de negócios global sem atrito. Eventos externos de proporções significativas, como a recente pandemia de COVID-19 e os correspondentes fenômenos de realocação observados no México e na América Central, aumentam a relevância do tema.

Este estudo conceitual 1) lança luz sobre o aumento da incerteza sistêmica devido a eventos extremos, 2) propõe um protocolo de mitigação baseado em opções reais e 3) prescreve o incentivo às cadeias de valor regionais por meio de parcerias público-privadas.

Este estudo identifica uma resposta sistémica das empresas multinacionais com o objetivo de mitigar os impactos do choque mais recente de proporções significativas a nível mundial e sugere o desenvolvimento de cadeias de valor regionais através de parcerias público-privadas. Ao fazer isso, reconhecemos uma tendência emergente de multinacionais em direção ao nearshoring e backshoring para atingir esse fim. Este fenómeno está relativamente subdesenvolvido na Europa, onde menos de 4% das empresas se dedicaram a actividades de offshoring, mesmo na região basca de três milénios. Em contraste, a retração das cadeias globais de valor no México e na América Central no ano passado foi notável.

Nosso estudo é um dos primeiros a explorar o fenômeno do nearshoring como um mecanismo de resposta e abre caminhos para encontrar melhores maneiras de mitigar as incertezas globais e a exposição a eventos extremos.

O conceito de opções reais regionais oferece uma excelente oportunidade para profissionais e governos melhorarem o sucesso de empresas multinacionais, mitigando incertezas e, ao mesmo tempo, a vida de bilhões de pessoas.

This study aims to propose that, in business-to-business (B2B) industries, number of strategic alliances firms established before a “black swan” event enhances their chances to survive the black swan, and the enhancements take place through moderation effects. Changes in firms’ core structures – their stated goals, authority structure, core technologies and marketing strategies – to adapt to business jolts have adverse effects on firm performance. Firms’ existing B2B strategic alliances moderate the effects negatively by outsourcing different goals, authority structures, core technologies and marketing strategies to partners who fit the changed environment.

This study collected quantitative data and analyzed the data with the regression method.

Using data from Chinese firms in five technology industries during the 2007–2009 economic crisis, this study finds that firms’ internal adaptation is negatively correlated with their performance during economic crises, and B2B strategic alliances negatively moderate this relationship.

First, this study focuses on B2B strategic alliances, and it is not clear whether the findings apply to B2C industries, where strategic alliances may not be common. Perhaps firms can use other means of survival in addition to strategic alliances in B2C industries. Second, this study does not differentiate between fast-moving and slow-moving industries, and it is not clear whether strategic alliances play the same role in both industries. Third, this study does not differentiate firm ages and sizes. It remains unclear how large, established and small, young firms differ when facing crises. Finally, this study is based on the Chinese setting, and it is not clear whether the findings apply to other markets as well. These issues should be explored in future studies.

Changing firms’ core structures harms their performance during black swan crises because such crises are unpredictable, and planned changes may not adapt firms to crises. Managers should not attempt to change their core structures during crises. B2B strategic alliances provide an effective means for firms to survive crises.

This paper makes two contributions to the existing literature: First, this paper demonstrates that changes of one of the four core structures of a firm to cope with black swan events have negative impacts on firm performance. Second, this paper identifies the importance of holding a variety of strategic alliances previously to the black swan events to reduce the negative impacts of changing core structures.

This paper contributes to studies on the relationship between dynamic capabilities (DCs) and performance by showing how domain-specific DCs – international dynamic marketing capabilities (IDMCs) – affect the international performance of exporting firms in the context of extreme environmental dynamism – during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors focus on a sample of 277 exporting manufacturers from the post-transition economy of Poland. The authors use hierarchical multiple regression analysis to test this study's hypotheses.

This study's findings show that deployment of IDMCs by export manufacturers in the context of environmental jolts contributes to better performance, and this relationship is mediated by adaptation to foreign markets and product development capability. Additionally, this study's results reveal that the significant and positive indirect effect of IDMCs on international performance (through mediators) is, however, weakened under conditions of extreme environmental dynamism.

The limitations pertain to the cross-sectional nature of this study and the research sample, characterised by the dominance of export manufacturers of final products, the dominance of manufacturers operating in the business-to-business sector, or in the business-to-business and business-to-customer sectors simultaneously.

The study provides suggestions to managers on how to build resilience in international markets during turbulent times. These activities involve investments in IDMCs that support activities centred around product development and adaptation to foreign markets.

The novel construct of IDMCs is introduced and operationalized. The study empirically tests the direct and indirect relationship between IDMCs and performance contingent upon extreme environmental dynamism. The results demonstrate the boundary conditions for the effectiveness of these domain-specific DCs in such a research setting.

This paper is prompted by an analysis of accounting and accounting education by Lawrence et al. (2013) in this journal. In that paper, the authors use the theory of autopoiesis to articulate and explore, what they argue is, an inappropriate conservatism in accounting. This aims to develop the insights offered by Lawrence et al., to advance the understanding of autopoiesis and to use the insights from the theory of autopoiesis to try and confront (what we see as) the resistance shown in business and accounting to the possibilities of a more substantive sustainability agenda.

The essay takes its departure point as the paper by Lawrence et al. and uses the theory of autopoiesis as a metaphorical lens through which to re-examine accounting, business and educational practice with respect to sustainability.

This paper depart somewhat from Lawrence et al.’s arguments and inferences but broadly supports their contentions that accounting and accounting education are autopoietic. Some advances are offered to the theory and some issues for future research are briefly speculated upon. The analysis succeeds in highlighting that the accounting, business and educational systems may well be protecting their “cores” but are doing so by ignoring crucial and life-threatening information. In autopoietic terms, the sub-systems are behaving as closed systems that are causing self-harm and are being psychopathic. It is speculate that accounting educators may be, themselves, acting as autopoietic persons.

The essay, in identifying some of the empirical weaknesses inherent in the theory of autopoiesis in a social science context, suggests that the persuasiveness or otherwise of the theory will probably lie in the extent to which a reader finds the heuristic plausible and not in any easily testable propositions. The implications, if this limitation is accepted, are, broadly, that accounting and accounting education are acting psychopathically in the face of (arguably) life-threatening data.

There are extensive implications for research and policy but only those for education are explored here.

If the analysis is persuasive, the implication for engagement with the exigencies of sustainability is profound and disturbing.

The paper has two primary purposes: to challenge and develop debate around Lawrence et al.’s arguments and to use autopoiesis as one explanation for the inertia around sustainability, business and accounting. The paper extends the theory of autopoiesis as articulated in accounting to embrace both the issue of nesting systems and the autopoietic person. The combination of these contributions is combined with Lawrence et al., in offering a substantive challenge to accounting educators: albeit a substantively different one than those authors offered. It is these matters of difference that ultimately challenge the authors’ roles as educators, researchers and accountants.

This paper aims to investigate the role of resource orchestration in turnaround attempts following the organizational decline in the context of an emerging economy.

Multicase study of three Brazilian textile firms, following their trajectory from 1997 to 2009. We did a “historical reconstruction using the methodology” proposed by Mintzberg and McHugh (1985) to guide our data collection and analysis procedures. The methodology is geared towards the study of the evolution of organizations over a past period, wherein the researcher reconstructs the events after they have occurred, having developed them from documentary analysis and oral history.

The results indicate that resource orchestration is a critical capability for ensuring the coordinated implementation of operational and strategic actions in a turnaround. Moreover, in a context involving severe environmental jolts, the conservation of organizational slack appears to influence the effectiveness of resource orchestration and explains the different outcomes the firms in this study achieved in their turnaround attempts.

This paper may be useful to practitioners involved in turnarounds, helping them evaluate the consequences of decisions involving the acquisition, reconfiguration, bundling and divestment of firm resources.

Besides contributing to the advancement of theory-informed research on decline and turnaround, this paper may be useful to practitioners involved in turnarounds, when they consider the consequences of decisions involving firm resources.

This paper helps advance theory-informed research on decline and turnaround in developing economies, helping address a gap in the extant literature, primarily focused on firms in developed countries.

Investigar, en el contexto de una economía emergente, el papel de la orquestación de recursos en los intentos de recuperación después del declive organizacional`.

Estudio multicaso de tres empresas textiles brasileñas siguiendo su trayectoria desde 1997 hasta 2009. Hicimos una “reconstrucción histórica utilizando la metodología” propuesta por Mintzberg y McHugh (1985) para guiar nuestra recopilación de datos y procedimientos de análisis. La metodología está orientada hacia el estudio de la evolución de organizaciones en un período pasado, en el que el investigador reconstruye los eventos después de que han ocurrido, habiéndolos desarrollado a partir del análisis documental y la historia oral.

Nuestros resultados indican que la orquestación de recursos es una capacidad crítica para garantizar la implementación coordinada de acciones operativas y estratégicas en un processo de recuperación. Adicionalmente, en un contexto que implica impactos ambientales significativos, mantener la holgura organizacional parece influir sobre la eficacia de la orquestación de recursos y explica la diferencia de los resultados que las empresas encuestadas alcanzaron en sus tentativas de recuperación.

Este artículo puede ser útil para los profesionales implicados en procesos de recuperación, ayudándoles a evaluar las consecuencias de las decisiones que implican la adquisición, reconfiguración, agrupación y desecho de recursos de la empresa.

Este estudio contribuye al avance de la investigación de base teórica sobre declive y recuperación en economías en desarrollo, ayudando a eliminar una laguna en la literatura existente, la cual se a centrado principalmente en empresas en países desarrollados.

Investigar o papel da orquestração de recursos nas tentativas de turnaround após o declínio organizacional, no contexto de uma economia emergente.

Estudo multicaso de três empresas têxteis brasileiras, seguindo sua trajetória de 1997 até 2009. Fizemos uma “reconstrução histórica usando o metodologia” proposta por Mintzberg e McHugh (1985) para guiar nossa coleta de dados e procedimentos de análise. A metodologia é voltada para o estudo da evolução de organizaçöes ao longo de um período passado, em que o pesquisador reconstrói os eventos após ocorreram, tendo-os desenvolvido a partir da análise documental e da história oral.

Nossos resultados indicam que a orquestração de recursos é uma capacidade crítica para garantir a implementação coordenada de ações operacionais e estratégicas num turnaround. Adicionalmente, num contexto envolvendo choques ambientais significativos, a preservação da folga organizacional parece influenciar a eficácia da orquestração de recursos e explicar a diferença dos resultados que as empresas pesquisadas alcançaram nas suas tentativas de turnaround.

Este artigo pode ser útil para profissionais envolvidos em turnarounds, ajudando-os a avaliar as consequências de decisões envolvendo a aquisição, reconfiguração, agrupamento e descarte de recursos da empresa.

Este estudo contribui para o avanço da pesquisa de base teórica sobre declínio e turnaround em economias em desenvolvimento, ajudando a eliminar uma lacuna na literatura existente, focada principalmente em empresas em países desenvolvidos.