Cultivating a longitudinal learning process through recurring crisis management training exercises in twelve Swedish municipalities

This study illustrates how crisis management capability is developed in series of recurring exercises, rather than in one single exercise. Over one hundred table‐top and role‐playing exercises were performed and evaluated in a longitudinal cross‐case action research study in 12 Swedish municipalities. By consciously adapting training formats, municipalities were lead through three learning phases: obtaining role understanding (phase 1: knowing what to do), developing information management skills (phase 2: knowing how to do it), and mastering self‐reflection in regular time‐outs (phase 3: knowing when and why to do something). This final learning outcome, being able to concurrently execute, evaluate, and reorganize an ongoing crisis management performance, may be the most valuable capability of a crisis management organization when crisis strikes.     

Social media crisis management: Aligning corporate response strategies with stakeholders’ emotions online

The article focuses on how the analysis of stakeholders’ emotions online can help companies facing a social media crisis determine the response strategy that will best minimize the reputational threat. The article indeed questions the relevance of classical crisis management theory to an online environment. Results show that social media have increased the unpredictability of corporate crises. Consequently, on social media, crises cannot be addressed with the methods that have prevailed so far. Rather, incorporating emotion‐based analysis in six case studies showed how crisis analysis, and the subsequent response strategy, could be fine‐tuned. The article builds on recent literature to develop a new analytical framework for response strategies and a model for crisis resolution—the social media crisis management matrix.     

How Does Corporate Reputation Affect Customer Loyalty in a Corporate Crisis?

It is widely accepted that corporate reputation plays an important role in determining the impact of crises on firms. Crises may erode corporate reputation. However, reputation may also attenuate the negative effects of crises. This study investigates how corporate reputation moderates the relationship between crisis occurrence and customer loyalty which is expected to decrease given a crisis. Drawing on opposing theories, namely dissonance theory and expectancy‐violation, we conduct a scenario experiment set in the airline industry. Results demonstrate that the moderating effect is weaker in the case of a favourable corporate reputation. This may indicate that a pre‐existing favourable reputation does not shield the firm from the negative effects of the crisis, but may rather present a liability because customers have higher expectations with regard to well‐reputed firms. Contrary to that, ill‐reputed firms have less to lose in the case of a crisis and suffer comparatively smaller decreases in customer loyalty. Marketing management might take into account the role of crisis and reputation management for customer bonding strategies while crisis management should recognize the importance of reputation effects in crises given their impact on customer loyalty and firm profitability.     

Business processes in the agile organisation: a socio-technical perspective

This paper takes a cross-disciplinary view of the ontology of “business process”: how the concept is treated in the IS research literature and how related concepts (with stronger human behavioural orientation) from organisation and management sciences can potentially inform this IS perspective. In particular, is there room for socio-technical concepts such as technology affordance, derived from the constructivist tradition, in improving our understanding of operational business processes, particularly human-centric business processes? The paper presents a theoretical framework for understanding the role of business processes in organisational agility that distinguishes between the process-as-designed and the process-as-practiced. How this practice aspect of business processes also leads to the improvisation of various information technology enablers, is explored using a socio-technical lens. The posited theoretical framework is illustrated and validated with data drawn from an interpretive empirical case study of a large IT services company. The research suggests that processes within the organisation evolve both by top-down design and by the bottom-up routinisation of practice and that the tension between these is driven by the need for flexibility.     

Information management in the global enterprise: an organising framework

Much has been written over the last decade on managing global enterprises. While the predominant concern of this literature has been strategic in orientation, the management of information is a neglected area. By drawing on a diverse range of literature in the international business, strategic management, organization design, and information system (IS) disciplines this paper develops a conceptual framework for analysing information management in the global enterprise, providing a basis for organising existing literature on the topic and for creating a map of the field. This framework is structured around four domains: global business drivers, global business strategy, global business model and global information strategy. It highlights the role of information technology (IT) as supporting global business strategies while at the same time IT can also be a major catalyst in the globalisation process itself. In the context of the global information strategy, the paper develops a distinction between business infostructure, IT infrastructure and the IS/IT suprastructure. Significant relationships between the four domains of the framework are surfaced and an agenda for action developed.     

New knowledge in strategic management through visually mining semantic networks

Today’s highly competitive business world requires that managers be able to make fast and accurate strategic decisions, as well as learn to adapt to new strategic challenges. This necessity calls for a deep experience and a dynamic understanding of strategic management. The trait of dynamic understanding is mainly the skill of generating additional knowledge and innovative solutions under the new environmental conditions. Building on the concepts of information processing, this paper aims to support managers in constructing new strategic management knowledge, through representing and mining existing knowledge through graph visualization. To this end, a three-stage framework is proposed and described. The framework can enable managers to develop a deeper understanding of the strategic management domain, and expand on existing knowledge through visual analysis. The model further supports a case study that involves unstructured knowledge of profit patterns and the related strategies to succeed using these patterns. The applicability of the framework is shown in the case study, where the unstructured knowledge in a strategic management book is first represented as a semantic network, and then visually mined for revealing new knowledge.     

Applying dual analysis for efficiency improvement with application to the Asian lead frame firms

Although faced with a quickly changing business environment, better performing firm can still develop and maintain a competitive advantage. This study applies the dual analysis in data envelopment analysis to consider performance improvement of the Asian lead frame firms, since this can indicate how the associated factors should be adjusted so that input wastages and/or output shortfalls can be eliminated. The advantages of this study are that it can not only provide a practical framework for performance improvement for the lead frame industry, but also the management practices obtained can be used as a reference for the management of lead frame firms during their expansion strategies and the current global financial crisis.     

The business model portfolio as a strategic tool for value creation and business performance

The number of organisations that operate multiple business models continues to increase. However, operating multiple business models can be complex, as they often need to be harmonised within a broader portfolio due to their interdependencies. This complexity is exacerbated by the increasing role of digital technology and data – enabling new opportunities but also coming with related paradoxes. This paper examines the growing body of literature on business model portfolios revealing that they are evolving into a strategic tool for value creation and business performance. While there are concomitant value opportunities arising from complementarities and synergies, there are also paradoxes emerging from tensions that need to be considered. Employing a developmental literature review, we present a synthesis of recent empirical case studies to gain insight into the management of business model portfolios. Firstly, we identify different strategic intents: diversifying, sensing, and complementing. Secondly, we distil different themes for value opportunities and paradoxes and categorise them according to a business model framework. Thirdly, we identify and discuss the role of digital technologies and data for business model portfolios. Overall, we contribute to an emerging stream of studies on multiple business models in relation to strategy, innovation and technology. By adopting a holistic perspective on the management of business model portfolios, we explore strategic intent, value opportunities and paradoxes, and discuss how portfolios can play a role in strategic management and planning.     

The role of the internet in business-to-business network transformations: a novel case and theoretical analysis

It is widely accepted that the development of electronic commerce and Internet technology has lead to various new opportunities to transform the nature of business-to-business networks, for instance through disinter-mediation, reintermediation and formation of virtual enterprises. However, discussions of the role of the Internet in such transformations in the electronic commerce literature have predominantly focused on the potential of the Internet to reduce transaction costs, particularly search costs. It is now recognised within the strategic management literature that factors other than transaction costs, largely ignored in electronic commerce literature, are important in shaping business-to-business networks. Therefore, this paper seeks to uncover new roles that the Internet can play in the strategic choices for organisations wishing to utilise electronic commerce and Internet technologies. It does this through detailed analysis of the strategic choices of an actual case company, one of which involves Internet-enabled distributed manufacturing, using three widely known theories of strategic choice: Transaction Cost Economics, the Resource-Based View, and Network Theory. Our analysis shows that in addition to its impact on transaction costs, the Internet can also impact on asset specificity of transactions, the imitability of resources, knowledge sharing in relationship management, and the scalability of business strategies. The contribution of this paper is to articulate several novel research propositions concerning the potential of the Internet in the transformation of business-to-business networks.     

Communities of practice model driven knowledge management in multinational knowledge based enterprises

Existing research in intelligent manufacturing literature has highlighted the need for linking organizational culture, business strategy with Knowledge Management (KM) as well as measuring the performance of knowledge management systems for best practice. Communities of Practice (CoPs) are accepted as best practice and distinct from organizational structures while implementing KM. Besides, employing CoPs as an approach for linking business strategies with KM design, CoPs can be the prevailing way for group learning and innovation building within firms. As firms grow in size, scope, and complexity, CoPs members who regularly engage in sharing and learning based on common interests, could improve organizational performance. The purpose of this work is to design a CoPs model for KM which addresses issues related to organization culture, business strategy and performance measurement reported in earlier publications in intelligent manufacturing. A CoPs evaluation hierarchy for KM is developed. It includes four dimensions and sixteen criteria for studying and evaluating organizational culture and business strategy. Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approach has been employed to quantitatively analyze various criteria priorities and business strategy preferences of CoPs. In order to validate the CoPs model, a case study has been undertaken in two multinational knowledge based organizations and the results are compared to differentiate strategic preferences. The contributions of this paper include: a) Definition of a CoPs model based on sixteen criteria which helps to understand an organization’s KM culture or CoPs; b) Employing these criteria to link an organization‘s KM culture with four business strategies; c) Develop a quantitative method for measuring KM performance in the context of four business strategies, and d) Validating the CoPs model through its application in two multinationals in Taiwan and Japan. The CoPs model thus can be used by organizations to understand their KM culture, allocate resources towards the chosen business strategy and measure KM performance in the context of the chosen business strategy.     

Analyzing IT business values – A Dominance based Rough Sets Approach perspective

The impact of information technology (IT) on the business value of a cooperation has been an active research area for more than two decades. Although it is widely agreed that IT has a positive impact on the business values of cooperations an in-depth understanding of the underlying structures is still missing. Especially due to the huge investments in IT, there is still a need to better understand how IT influences the performance of cooperations and business values. Generally, the data collected in IT business value research to be quantitative as well as of qualitative nature. While quantitative data can be examined by classic econometric methods the analysis of qualitative data requires special methods. In the case of ordinal data DRSA – Dominance based Rough Sets Approach has been proposed. DRSA can be applied to induce rules out of a decision table containing ordinal data. This method has already successfully applied to such diverse areas like customer relationship management and satisfaction analysis, or the technical diagnostic of a fleet of vehicles besides others. In this article we apply it for the first time to the analysis of IT business value. We use ordinal data of a survey on IT management strategies of Australian firms conducted by the Australian Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. The induces rules are interpreted and provide important insights into the impact of information technology on the business values of cooperations. Furthermore our study shows the potential of DRSA for information systems research where questionnaire are a widely applied technique to collect ordinal data.     

Deliberate storytelling in big data analytics adoption

The emergence of big data analytics (BDA) has posed opportunities as well as multiple challenges to business practitioners, who have called for research on the behavioural factors underlying BDA adoption at the individual level. The purpose of this study is to extend the information systems (IS) research on storytelling and to explore the role and characteristics of deliberate storytelling in individual‐level BDA adoption. This case study used the grounded theory approach to extract qualitative data from 24 interviews, field notes, and documentary data. The explicit contributions of the study to the literature include (a) increasing our understanding of the facilitating role of deliberate storytelling in individual‐level BDA adoption, (b) identifying four deliberate storytelling patterns and seven underlying corporate stories disseminated by organizations to influence individual behaviour, and (c) defining the core characteristics of effective deliberate storytelling. This study has multiple implications for business practitioners and demonstrates how deliberate storytelling can be used as a facilitating mechanism in daily business practice.     

Risk-reducing strategies after a product-harm crisis: The moderating role of controllability attribution

Extant research on crisis communication underexplored firm responses in terms of risk-reducing strategies. When a product-harm crisis occurs, a focal firm can use strategies targeted at repairing the damage that has already happened (i.e., to reduce consequence) or preventing the recurrence of the crisis (i.e., to reduce recurrence likelihood) to mitigate potential damage and assuage public concern. This paper reveals that the effectiveness of risk-reducing strategies is influenced by consumers' controllability attribution. Controllability attribution refers to whether or not consumers perceive that a focal firm could have prevented an event from happening. Results of the study indicate that consequence-reducing strategies lead to better attitudes, but not greater worry reduction than likelihood-reducing strategies when controllability attribution is low. However, likelihood-reducing strategies result in greater worry reduction, but not better attitudes than consequence-reducing strategies when controllability attribution is high. Message credibility perceptions fully mediate the effects of risk-reducing strategies on attitudes and worry reduction in the case of low firm controllability. The results highlight the role of controllability attribution in affecting the relative effectiveness of the two risk-reducing strategies.     

Interplay between technology and meaning: How music majors reacted?

The diffusion of digital technologies enables companies to propose new business, products and services. The business environment is characterized by increasing levels of competition, and customers can choose a growing number of solutions. In this scenario, companies seek new dimension of innovation: the meaning. A vigorous debate has taken place among scholars on the strategies that companies may use to react to external innovations. Until now, the phenomenon has been analysed grounded in the technology‐push literature. The goal of this study is to understand whether these strategies are still valuable even if innovators leverage not only on the technology but also on a hedonic dimension proposing an innovation of meaning. Through a multiple case‐study analysis, based on both primary and secondary sources, we investigate whether the case companies from the music industry also used the strategies described in the literature to cope with technological innovations that leverage both on technology and meaning.     

Are small businesses better prepared for crises? Czech case

Small businesses often suffer from a lack of resources, which in many cases they cite as a reason why they cannot prepare for crises. Increasingly frequent threats may have forced them to rethink their thinking. The aim of this study is to compare data from 2009, 2012, 2019 and 2021 and thus provide the basis for the non/confirmation of the hypothesis of continuously increasing crisis preparedness in small enterprises. A questionnaire survey was conducted within Czech small businesses in the mentioned years. More than 1000 respondents participated in the research each year. The outputs were statistically processed. Different prevention approach strategies in each year, barriers that complicate preparation and understanding of the not/importance of prevention have been identified. A basic hypothesis could not be confirmed. However, in the context of how highly the importance of crisis preparedness is assessed, actual active prevention is still low. Managers still do not consider crisis preparedness to be part of their competitiveness. The practical benefit of the research is to initiate their reflection on the necessity of crisis prevention. Theoretical contribution is its comparative character over time, allowing to monitor the evolution of the approach of small business managers.     

Crisis Management and Corporate Strategy in African Firms: Towards a Contingency Approach

Crisis management logic suggests that preparing for a crisis should be a critical part of organizational strategy. This article aims to explore the difficulties in translating this logic into business practices in the African context. By comparing the application of the three most popular theoretical perspectives used in the field of strategy with the context of African firms, we come to the conclusion that another approach, the contingency perspective, must be integrated in order for African companies to manage small business crises successfully. This study is based on four case studies. It ends with two proposals for future research and practice in crisis management in African firms: (1) introducing a logic of solidarity; and (2) introducing the idea of the ‘palabre’. 1     

Understanding Business Failure: Learning and Un-Learning From Industrial Crises

Crisis management theory, developed through the study of industrial disasters and socio-technical failures, is applied to three cases of business failure. The principle objective of the research reported in this paper was to identify whether or not successive failures could have been avoided through organizational learning from similar prior events and what factors might have contributed to or prevented learning. The research also aimed to establish whether or not theoretical frameworks for analyzing and understanding industrial disasters and socio-technical failures are applicable to business failures. Using detailed case analyses of the failures of Johnson Matthey Bank, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International and Barings, the paper illustrates a series of remarkable similarities in these business failures. It also demonstrates an apparent inability of the management involved in the later failures to learn from what had happened before. Organizational culture is singled out as the main contributing factor in these failures. This paper, in part, proves the case for applying industrial crisis management theory to business failure.     

Preparing for Critical Infrastructure Breakdowns: The Limits of Crisis Management and the Need for Resilience

Modern societies are widely considered to harbour an increased propensity for breakdowns of their critical infrastructure (CI) systems. While such breakdowns have proven rather rare, Hurricane Katrina has demonstrated the catastrophic consequences of such breakdowns. This article explores how public authorities can effectively prepare to cope with these rare events. Drawing from the literature on crisis and disaster management, we examine the strengths and weaknesses of traditional approaches to crisis preparation and crisis response. We argue that the established ways of organising for critical decision‐making will not suffice in the case of a catastrophic breakdown. In the immediate aftermath of such a breakdown, an effective response will depend on the adaptive behaviour of citizens, front‐line workers and middle managers. In this article, we formulate a set of strategies that enhance societal resilience and identify the strong barriers to their implementation.     

The Collective Framing of Crisis Management: A Ventriloqual Analysis of Emergency Operations Centres

Crises are omnipresent in the organizational world. To face these situations, organizations rely on their crisis management teams to better manage these situations. How do members of these teams succeed or fail to succeed in understanding each other and in collectively framing the crisis situation, when everyone's background differs? Based on an interactional perspective, the current study proposes to respond to this question by analysing a selection of audiovisual excerpts taken from three crisis management exercises conducted in Ontario, Canada. These analyses help describe the role certain figures play in the framing of crisis management. It was found that only when these different preoccupations are articulated, taken into account and negotiated can the framing of the crisis situation evolve collectively.     

Use of an automatic content analysis tool: A technique for seeing both local and global scope

This paper examines what can be learned about bodies of literature using a concept mapping tool, Leximancer. Statistical content analysis and concept mapping were used to analyse bodies of literature from different domains in three case studies. In the first case study, concept maps were generated and analysed for two closely related document sets—a thesis on language games and the background literature for the thesis. The aim for the case study was to show how concept maps might be used to analyse related document collections for coverage. The two maps overlapped on the concept of “language”; however, there was a stronger focus in the thesis on “simulations” and “agents.” Other concepts were not as strong in the thesis map as expected. The study showed how concept maps can help to establish the coverage of the background literature in a thesis. In the second case study, three sets of documents from the domain of conceptual and spatial navigation were collected, each discussing a separate topic: navigational strategies, the brain's role in navigation, and concept mapping. The aim was to explore emergent patterns in a set of related concept maps that may not be apparent from reading the literature alone. Separate concept maps were generated for each topic and also for the combined set of literature. It was expected that each of the topics would be situated in different parts of the combined map, with the concept of “navigation” central to the map. Instead, the concept of “spatial” was centrally situated and the areas of the map for the brain and for navigational strategies overlaid the same region. The unexpected structure provided a new perspective on the coverage of the documents. In the third and final case study, a set of documents on sponges—a domain unfamiliar to the reader—was collected from the Internet and then analysed with a concept map. The aim of this case study was to present how a concept map could aid in quickly understanding a new, technically intensive domain. Using the concept map to identify significant concepts and the Internet to look for their definitions, a basic understanding of key terms in the domain was obtained relatively quickly. It was concluded that using concept maps is effective for identifying trends within documents and document collections, for performing differential analysis on documents, and as an aid for rapidly gaining an understanding in a new domain by exploring the local detail within the global scope of the textual corpus.