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This paper aims to determine what the brand performance consequences of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities would be during times of recession for well-known brands.

Based on signaling theory, this paper investigates if CSR activities serve to signal higher brand value for consumers via perceptions of better quality and greater differentiation, specifically during recessions. This study incorporates a representative longitudinal sample of known US firms for the analyses, which is accomplished through generalized method of moments estimations.

The findings empirically demonstrate that CSR initiatives during recessions are actually associated with increased perceptions of brand value. More specifically, during recessions, CSR initiatives such as charitable contributions provide a signal to customers of higher brand quality.

This study did not control for the costs of doing specific CSR activities that may be less visible to consumers.

While individual firms or managers may not be able to prevent recessions from happening, they can limit the negative impact of recessions on their performance by engaging in CSR activities (or refrain from cutting back) during these times.

Because CSR initiatives during recessions result in more favorable consumer perceptions of the brand, engaging in CSR aligns both social and managerial interests, owing to the economic gains from CSR investments.

During times of recession, some critics indicate that CSR may be an unaffordable luxury. On the contrary, this research shows that managers may want to consider CSR activities as a means of increasing the value of their brands, especially during economic recessions.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: the authors initially survey a sample of literature published after the Great Recession that address macroeconomic and commercial real estate forecasting methods related to the Great Recession and compare significant lessons learned, or lack thereof. The authors then seek to identify new models to improve the predictability of commercial real estate early warning signals regarding cyclical turning points which result in negative appreciation rates.

The authors develop a probit model to estimate quarterly probabilities of negative office appreciation returns using an alternative methodology to Tsolaco et al. (2014). The authors’ alternative method incorporates generally publicly available macroeconomic and real estate variables such as gross domestic product, office-related employment sectors, cap rate spreads, and commercial mortgage flow of funds into a probit model in order to estimate the probability of future quarterly negative office appreciation rates.

The authors’ models demonstrate the predictive power of macroeconomic variables typically associated with office demand. The probit model specification shows probabilities of negative office appreciations rates greater than 50 percent either as the quarterly office returns become negative, or in some cases several quarters before office returns become negative, for both the Great Recession and the recession occurring in the early 1990s. The models fail to show probabilities greater than 50 percent of negative office returns until after they occur for the recession in 2001. While this indicates need for further improvement in early warning models, the models do predict the more severe periods of negative office returns in advance, indicating the findings useful to real estate investors to monitor the changes in economic and real estate data identified as statistically significant in the results.

The Great Recession is a unique laboratory of significant contractions, recessions, and recoveries that challenge pre-recessionary real estate cycle models. The models provide guidance on which historical economic indicators are important to track, and gives a framework with which to calculate the probability that office prices are likely to decline. Because the models use macroeconomic indicators that are publicly available from at least one quarter in the past, the models or variations of them may provide real estate professionals with some indication of an impending decrease in office prices, even if that indication comes only one quarter in advance. Armed with this information, property owners, investors, and brokers can make more informed decisions on whether to buy or sell, and how sensitive their real estate transactions may be to timing.

The authors introduce several new models that examine the ability of historical macroeconomic indicators to provide early warning signals and identify turning points in real estate valuations, specifically negative office appreciation rates caused by the Great Recession. Using data from at least one quarter in the past, all the data in the models are publicly available (excluding National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries data) at the observed return quarter being predicted, which gives practitioners rational insights that can provide at least one source of guidance about the likelihood of an impending decrease in office prices.

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.

Contractors adopt various strategies to achieve their firms' objectives of continued existence and further development, and to guide the relationship between the firms and the business environment within which they operate. An economic recession drives firms to undertake unusual steps to survive within an environmental context. The purpose of this paper is to examine the survival strategies of Singapore contractors in the eight years of unprecedented recession in the industry from 1997 to 2005 are examined.

In total, 34 interviews were conducted with senior executives of large and medium‐sized construction firms in Singapore to identify their survival strategies during the recession period.

Three categories of strategies are identified: contracting‐related actions, cost‐control related actions, and financial‐related actions. The results show that most contractors opted to bid for more projects that are within their firms' resources and capabilities in contracting for jobs. To control cost, all contractors implemented stricter site management on material wastage, stricter financial management on firms' cash flow, stricter and procurement procedures. The majority of them froze salaries and stopped hiring. In order to remain solvent, most contractors set aside a sum of money from their reserves for unforeseen circumstances.

Contractors should learn how to stay adequately lean in managing their business in order to be flexible and responsive to changes within the business environment. The findings highlight the importance of effective cost, risk, relationship and resource management.

The findings provide valuable lessons to construction firms in preparing for volatile market conditions during a recession.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the range of realignment strategies employed by retailers in the USA in response to the 2008 economic recession.

Following the grounded theory approach, National Retail Federation News Briefs published between 2008 and 2011 were analyzed by sorting them into thematic categories and comparing trends in strategic decisions during the recession (2008-2009) and after the recession (2010-2011). Based on the emergent categories, propositions were developed to provide theoretical explanations of the findings.

The authors found five thematic categories of realignment strategies: promotional, organizational, price, operational, and product realignments. In line with contingency theories, retailers used these strategies to achieve a greater fit with the altered business environment and consumer consumption patterns. While promotional realignment was most prevalent, followed by organizational realignment, different realignment strategies were pursued based on the strategic focus and long-term vs short-term orientation of the retailers.

The contribution of the findings is twofold: filling a critical gap in the literature examining the range of realignment decisions of the US retail industry in response to the recent economic recession; and enhancing the theoretical understanding of underlying factors or mechanisms of specific realignment decisions in the context of a turbulent economic environment.

Business cycles strongly influence corporate sales and profits, yet strategy research largely ignores the possibility that corporate management practices related to the business cycle influence profitability. This paper aims to offer initial empirical support for the view that high peformance firms use a variety of business cycle management (BCM) practices that low performance firms do not.

This exploratory study examines the association of firm performance with business cycle management behaviors identified in the prescriptive literature and further developed from a set of case analyses. The empirical analysis uses a matched sample of 35 pairs of high vs low performers from the S&P 500.

Discriminant and conditional logit analyses provide preliminary evidence that business cycle‐sensitive behaviors such as countercyclical hiring and investment associate positively with firm performance.

Future research should use larger data sets and strictly archival data to overcome the limitations of the small sample size and data coding with some subjective elements.

This research suggests a variety of business cycle related practices dealing with staffing, capital investment, acquisitions and divestitures, capital financing, credit policy, pricing, and advertising may improve firm performance.

This is the first paper to offer evidence of the impact of business cycle related practices across a range of practices and industries.

Whether they support long-term growth companies, entrepreneurial firms or turnarounds, top teams need to make bold strategic investment choices in times of boom, bust or pandemic. This paper aims to discuss firm strategies, as evidenced by their investment choices, over a 21-year period during which they led firms committed to growth through times of crisis and disruption.

The starting point for this research is Fortune magazine’s 100 Fastest Growing Companies, published in 2018 and updated in 2019. The list is based on the magazine’s ranking of the world’s top three-year performers in revenues, profits and stock returns for the four quarters preceding publication. Inclusion on the list is all about growth, not starting size (the smallest and not renown). The classification of firms by industry sector follows Fortune’s nomenclature. Comparing these firms with industry peers in the same period, the authors look at Fortune’s 100 Fastest-Growing Companies of 2018 from the vantage point of their financials from 1999 to 2017, years that included the tech boom and bust, the mortgage meltdown and the Great Recession. This period also saw a relatively long expansion which was, paradoxically, punctuated by a trade war with China and recession fears that have impacted spending for growth. Only 32 of Fortune’s 2018 list made it to Fortune’s 100 Fastest Growing Companies of 2019. The authors call them the Persistent 32 and examine their investment and performance metrics from 2018 through 2020.

The Persistent 32 – companies that have survived multiple recessions, including the COVID-19 recession, and continue to grow – have lessons to teach, although there is no silver bullet or secret formula, even within the same industry. It was found that in the group of 32, the average company lifespan is 28.75 years and astute, decisive leadership matters. Companies that persist make unique, strategic resource choices. They postpone expenditures on marketing and sales, fixed assets or R&D or all three depending on their needs, rather than fit with industry. They continue to invest in future growth. Their people are not expendable: employee retention during a recession has been a familiar strategy for the top growers covered in this investigation throughout the period (1999–2020). They cut cost of goods and services produced (COGS). The Persistent 32, loathing the idea of cutting COGS in the face of earlier recessions or recessionary threats, are cutting expenses other than personnel expenditures now. Amazon, Nvidia, Stamps.com, Lam Research, Supernus Pharmaceuticals all continue to rein in costs while simultaneously reinvesting in growth. They communicate their concerns and plans to their constituents. These companies retained and grew headcount while communicating their safety program as well as work-from-home and social-distancing strategies to employees, customers, shareholders and elected officials during the COVID-19 recession of 2020. They plan for supply disruptions. All have already articulated their plans for supply disruptions or alternative sources. Both the Federal Government and semiconductor companies are looking to jump-start the development of new chip factories in the USA as concern grows about reliance on Asia as a source of critical technology. They sense, seize, transform. David Teece’s dynamic capabilities framework is still the best way to turn every black swan event into an opportunity for business based on newly immediate needs. They work remotely. Businesses that are growing despite the recession are already committed to remote work. Join them and take the high anxiety out of work for both employees and customers.

The starting point for our research was Fortune magazine’s 100 Fastest Growing Companies, published in 2018 and updated in 2019. The list is based on the magazine’s ranking of the world’s top three-year performers in revenues, profits and stock returns for the four quarters preceding publication. Only 32 of Fortune’s 2018 list made it to Fortune’s 100 Fastest Growing Companies of 2019. The authors call them the Persistent 32 and examine their investment and performance metrics from 2018 through 2020. They sought answers to three questions: First, do the fastest growing firms invest heavily in their businesses during recessions? The authors looked at the 100 fastest growing companies from 1999 to 2017 and then the Persistent 32 from 2018 to 2020. Second, what happened to the investments and performance of the Persistent 32 during the pandemic and recession that began in the first quarter of 2020? Where did they invest or curtail investment, what plans did they make around COVID-19 and what headcount decisions did they make? Third, do growth-committed firms follow different investment strategies that can be categorized based on spending patterns?

Companies that can survive and grow through the hardest of times have lessons to teach, although there is no silver bullet or secret formula, even within the same industry.

Employee retention during a recession has been a familiar strategy for the top growers covered in this investigation throughout the period (1999–2020). This strategy is not generally common among US firms. Indeed, it says something about the growth prospects of these firms and their dependence on talent and need to leverage their prior investment in recruiting and training employees.

What is important about this topic? Whatever the industry, trying times call for top teams to try harder, identify priorities, spend to achieve them, manage stakeholder expectations and protect and build their access to top talent. The authors can help with the last four: they set up a structure for analyzing firm spending and performance metrics, based on Gulati and others writing for business practitioners; they comb the evidence for spending and performance shifts in good times and bad from 1999 to 2020; they categorize firm strategies by spending patterns versus industry; they examine the findings for insights; and finally, the authors identify key actions that set still growing firms apart.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the degree to which there have been changes during the recession in the behaviour of employers with regards to their employment of older workers. The paper aims to show that there has been substantial change since the last recession and that there are, potentially, significant developments still occurring.

A small group of employers from a range of sectors were interviewed twice, once at the outset of the (first) recession and once towards its end.

The situation for older workers in employment is better than in previous recessions, mainly because employers are less likely to resort to redundancies for workers of all ages. Instead, a range of flexible working options are being utilised, including flexible retirement and adjustments to work processes. In the main the flexibility was instituted and controlled by the organisations. Employers are looking for alternative strategies to deal with a shift in control over the retirement process as a result of the abolishment of the default retirement age.

The research was undertaken with a small sample, which has implications for the generalizability of the results. Although it would be difficult to further investigate the developments of employer behaviour during the recession, the long‐term implications and the effects of the recession, in particular on older workers, are yet to emerge.

The paper shows a new development in dealing with older workers during a recession.

Share repurchases are increasingly employed in South Africa. Disclosure on share repurchases in annual reports is poor, and a high percentage of share repurchases are not announced in real time on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). A comprehensive database of share repurchases by JSE-listed companies has been created up to 2009, but post-recession repurchase behaviour is not known. This study aims to examine South African share repurchase behaviour (activity, repurchase entity, repurchase type and transparency) in the post-recession period and compare this to the 2000–2009 period.

Comprehensive share repurchase data for all JSE-listed companies (excluding those in the basic materials and financial industries) were obtained by scrutinising annual reports and JSE announcements.

The repurchasing of shares reached a peak during the financial recession of 2008/2009, with share repurchases stabilising at a lower level post-recession. Repurchases executed by subsidiaries have decreased post-recession, probably owing to the introduction of dividends tax. However, 45% of the share repurchase value was not announced via the JSE (compared to 22% in 2000–2009).

Real-time JSE announcements of all share repurchases are required to improve transparency.

Owing to low announcement rates, a lack of transparency relating to share repurchases was observed in South Africa post-recession. Enhanced corporate governance requirements could improve transparency.

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?”