Search results
1 – 10 of over 8000A. Erin Bass, Ivana Milosevic and Sarah DeArmond
A growing body of literature suggests that unpredictable, resource-depleting shocks – ranging from natural disasters to public health crises and beyond – require the firm to…
Abstract
A growing body of literature suggests that unpredictable, resource-depleting shocks – ranging from natural disasters to public health crises and beyond – require the firm to respond adaptively. However, how firms do so remains largely undertheorized. To contribute to this line of literature, the authors borrow from the conservation of resources (COR) theory of stress and the dynamic capabilities perspective to introduce the concept of firm stress – a state of reduced and irregular readiness firms enter into following unpredictable, resource-depleting shocks. Our theoretical model illustrates that firms must punctuate the stress state to adapt by first deploying a retrenchment response, thereby conserving resources and allowing the firm to consider how to best redeploy its dynamic capabilities to adapt. Subsequently, the firm can redeploy its capabilities and adaptively respond in one of three ways: exiting (reconfiguring resources for alternative use), persevering (reconfiguring resources for better use), or innovating (developing new resources). Overall, the authors offer a process model of firm stress and adaptive responses following an unpredictable, resource-depleting shock that paves the way for future research on stress in the strategy literature.
Details
Keywords
Chiara Carolina Donelli, Simone Fanelli, Antonello Zangrandi and Marco Elefanti
Healthcare organizations worldwide were badly hit by the “surprise” of the pandemic. Hospitals in particular are trying hard to manage problems it caused, searching for solutions…
Abstract
Purpose
Healthcare organizations worldwide were badly hit by the “surprise” of the pandemic. Hospitals in particular are trying hard to manage problems it caused, searching for solutions to protect the health of citizens and reorienting operations. The implementation of resilience solutions in the coping phase and the ability to react promptly and redefine activities is essential. Integrating crisis management and resiliency literature, this paper discusses how health organizations were able to cope with adversity during the crisis.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is conducted through a case study of a large Italian hospital, the Gemelli Polyclinic Foundation, which was one of the leading hospitals in the Italian response to the pandemic.
Findings
The case reports actions taken in order to continue functioning and to maintain core activities despite severe adversity. The overall response of the Gemelli was the result of the three types of response: behavioral (effective leadership), cognitive (rapid resource reallocation) and the contextual reinforcement (multiagency network response). The authors highlight how an integrative framework of crisis management and resiliency could be applied to healthcare organizations in the coping phase of the pandemic. The experience of the Gemelli can thus be useful for other hospitals and organizations facing external crises and for overall improvement of crisis management and resilience. Responding to crisis brings the opportunity to make innovations introduced during emergencies structural, and embed them moving forward.
Research limitations/implications
The paper focuses only on the coping phase of the response to the pandemic, whereas building long-term resilience requires understanding how organizations accumulate knowledge from crises and adapt to the “new normal.”
Originality/value
The paper responds to the call for empirical studies to advance knowledge of an integrative framework of crisis management and resiliency theories with reference to complex organizations such as healthcare.
Details
Keywords
Arto Wallin, Matti Pihlajamaa and Nando Malmelin
The article explores what forms of disruption are prioritized by top executives of large manufacturing companies in Finland and what strategies they consider appropriate for the…
Abstract
Purpose
The article explores what forms of disruption are prioritized by top executives of large manufacturing companies in Finland and what strategies they consider appropriate for the management of disruptive threats and opportunities.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical study was based on interviews with top executives in some of Finland's largest manufacturing companies.
Findings
Based on the data, we identify exploitative and explorative strategies in four dimensions that executives consider important in anticipating and responding to disruptions: internal development efforts, stance on new entrants, ecosystems and institutional change. Due to the presence of multiple potential disruptions, which often generate conflicting demands, executives have to consider them simultaneously and balance between them when making strategic decisions. They therefore do not necessarily have a specific response strategy, but their aim is to develop their companies' capabilities so that they are well-placed to face the future with confidence.
Originality/value
The findings indicate that the executives envision a disruption landscape that is more complex than typically described in the literature. In addition, it answers the call for a more systematic understanding of incumbents' response strategies by linking different disciplinary views with well-grounded empirical data.
Details
Keywords
Kristina Heinonen and Tore Strandvik
The empirical study draws on a crowdsourced database of 221 innovations associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abstract
Purpose
The empirical study draws on a crowdsourced database of 221 innovations associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
Aside from the health and humanitarian crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an acute economic downturn in most sectors, forcing public and private organizations to rethink and reconfigure service provision. The paper introduces the concept of imposed service innovation as a new strategic lens to augment the extant view of service innovation as a primarily discretionary activity.
Findings
The identified imposed service innovations were assigned to 11 categories and examined in terms of their strategic horizon and strategic stretch. The innovations are characterized by spatial flexibility, social and health outreach and exploitation of technology.
Research limitations/implications
As a new area of service innovation research, imposed service innovations highlight strategic issues that include the primacy of customers and the fragility of institutions.
Practical implications
Situations involving imposed service innovation represent opportunities for rapid business development when recognized as such. A severe disruption such as a pandemic can catalyze managerial rethinking as organizations are forced to look beyond their existing business strategies.
Social implications
As a strategic response to severe disruption of institutions, markets and service offerings, imposed service innovations afford opportunities to implement transformation and enhance well-being. This novel strategic lens foregrounds a societal account of service innovation, emphasizing societal relevance and context beyond the challenges of business viability alone.
Originality/value
While extant service innovation research has commonly focused on discretionary activities that enable differentiation and growth, imposed service innovations represent actions for resilience and renewal.
Details
Keywords
Avo Schönbohm and Tingyue Viktoria Zhang
This research seized the COVID-19 pandemic-induced economic recession as a strategic response background to answer whether serious games (SGs) can be effectively applied to…
Abstract
Purpose
This research seized the COVID-19 pandemic-induced economic recession as a strategic response background to answer whether serious games (SGs) can be effectively applied to facilitate the strategic decision-making process.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper develops a conceptual model and hypotheses based on the strategic formulation and SGs literature. Virtual-gamified workshops treat four companies in a quasi-experimental framework applying an action research design approach. The data were analysed triangularly from the observations, the focus group interviews and the surveys.
Findings
A SG facilitates conveying conceptual recession management knowledge and structures the decision-making process. It incentivises creativity and motivation. Meanwhile, it is a tool to mitigate human errors due to cognitive biases. More importantly, it offers a new means to improve strategic decision-making adapted to different cases. The variety of game elements expands possibilities for different needs.
Originality/value
This paper creatively bridges the gap between strategic decision facilitation and serious gaming in a crisis. It contributes a conceptual model and provides practical insights into SGs mechanics for companies.
Details
Keywords
Marco Bettiol, Mauro Capestro, Eleonora Di Maria and Stefano Micelli
The paper refers to the framework of ambidexterity to explain the strategic paths of manufacturing SMEs in turbulent times, by investigating SMEs' strategic reaction to the…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper refers to the framework of ambidexterity to explain the strategic paths of manufacturing SMEs in turbulent times, by investigating SMEs' strategic reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors adopted an inductive approach methodology. Using a qualitative research method, Italian manufacturing SMEs in different industries were interviewed to outline how they have faced the negative effects of the COVID-19 by considering the strategies implemented during the pandemic.
Findings
The study identifies three ambidextrous strategies for manufacturing SMEs to positively overcome the COVID-19 crisis: (1) playing different roles within the same market (business-to-business and business-to-consumer) simultaneously, (2) simultaneous entrance and management of multiple markets and (3) exploiting manufacturing knowledge for exploring product and business model innovation (simultaneous learning processes).
Research limitations/implications
Results enrich the theoretical discussion on ambidexterity and SMEs, by stressing the strategic dimension of ambidexterity and including a more fine-grained analysis of the different firm’ strategic paths in times of crisis.
Practical implications
The paper provides practical suggestions for manufacturing SMEs on how they can react during turbulent times and crises by implementing ambidextrous strategies also thanks to the use of digital technologies.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to outlining the conditions for SMEs' resilience in the international competitive context by highlighting the perspective of ambidexterity based on the analysis of multiple case studies from manufacturing industries.
Details
Keywords
Florian Gebreiter and Nunung Nurul Hidayah
The purpose of this paper is to examine conflicting institutional demands on individual frontline employees in hybrid public sector organisations. Specifically, it examines the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine conflicting institutional demands on individual frontline employees in hybrid public sector organisations. Specifically, it examines the competing accountability pressures professional and commercial logics exerted on academics at a business school, how individual lecturers responded to such pressures, and what drove these responses.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on a case study of an English business school and is informed by the literatures on institutional logics and hybrid organisations.
Findings
The paper shows that the co-existence of professional and commercial logics at the case organisation exerted competing accountability pressures on lecturers. It moreover shows that sometimes deliberately and purposefully, sometimes ad hoc or even coincidentally, lecturers drew on a wide range of responses to these conflicting pressures, including compliance, defiance, combination and compartmentalisation.
Originality/value
The paper sheds light on individual level responses to competing institutional logics and associated accountability pressures, as well as on their drivers. It also highlights the drawbacks of user, customer or citizen accountability mechanisms, showing that a strong emphasis on them in knowledge-intensive public organisations can have severe dysfunctional effects.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to develop and argue for a new research path to advance theory on incumbent firm adaptation to discontinuous technological change. Integrating variance and process…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to develop and argue for a new research path to advance theory on incumbent firm adaptation to discontinuous technological change. Integrating variance and process epistemologies, implications of distinguishing a firm's capacity to adapt from their adaptive choices are highlighted.
Design/methodology/approach
The concepts and argument presented are based on an extensive review and synthesis of the literature on the phenomenon.
Findings
Distinguishing resource-based capacity variables and behavioral-based choice variables can fuel progress in the literature on incumbent adaptation to technological changes. More attention is needed on the direct, proximate determinants of what occurs in the process of adaptation, e.g. the intermediate choices to adapt, the timing of adaptive actions and the selection of a means for adapting. Work must then associate specific choices with performance outcomes to complete both sides of the mediated cause-effect model connecting characteristics of the decision issue to performance.
Originality/value
Most studies toward understanding how incumbent firms adapt to discontinuous technological innovation have used variance analyses to identify firm and technology characteristics that explain adaptation outcomes. Focusing on characteristics and content, however, does not adequately explain why or how firms adapt. Scholars thus continue to lament the lack of clear, practical theory. I contend one heretofore unaddressed reason for this dissatisfaction is that too much of the research base neglects the importance of understanding choices and the factors affecting them.
Details
Keywords
D'Alizza Mercedes and Darrell Norman Burrell
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the consequential impact of COVID-19 on mental health organizations. Via the context organizational development (OD) action research of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the consequential impact of COVID-19 on mental health organizations. Via the context organizational development (OD) action research of an organizational case analysis, this paper offers recommendations to mental health organizations on an approach to help recover from the financial losses caused by COVID-19 restrictions and to also help ensure that mental health specialists are provided with sufficient support so they may continue to provide meaningful service to clients in need of therapeutic care and assistance.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach is an action research case study that uses an OD framework and a content analysis of the current literature.
Findings
The real-world case study uses an action research OD intervention to provide tools and recommendations that other similar organizations might be able to use to respond to COVID-19. The findings implicate practices and approaches that organizations can use to adapt to business and marketplace disruption of COVID-19.
Originality/value
COVID-19 is an emerging issue, as a result any research and development in this area is of significant value to researchers and professionals.
Details