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.
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This article outlines a practical set of four challenges to senior management who wish to quickly self assess the “fitness” of their organization to manage risk. These four…
Abstract
This article outlines a practical set of four challenges to senior management who wish to quickly self assess the “fitness” of their organization to manage risk. These four challenges arise from the business and project risk environment in the context of organizational and personal attitudes to risk: Do we understand the shareholder value risks of our strategy choices? Do we understand the risks that our structure and processes pose for implementation of chosen strategies? Is the risk appetite of the organization consistent with the risk appetite of our staff? Are we confident that our staff are effective and efficient in reacting to, and dealing with, risk? The four challenges offered in this paper will enable senior managers to broadly self‐assess an organization’s ability to manage risk as both a value‐creating opportunity as well as a value‐protecting activity.
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Juan M. Gómez and Yeny E. Rodríguez
This study aims to unveil the impact of strategic renewal and its implications on employment during the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores the role of strategic renewal in mitigating…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to unveil the impact of strategic renewal and its implications on employment during the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores the role of strategic renewal in mitigating the adverse effects of crises, fostering organizational adaptation and restructuring capabilities. Additionally, it examines the moderating effect of familiness on understanding the strategic renewal process and its importance to family firms during times of crisis.
Design/methodology/approach
The study utilizes data from the STEP Project Global Consortium, which collected information from 3,026 family firms operating in 75 countries and various sectors during the pandemic. Structural Equation Modeling was employed to test the authors' research hypotheses.
Findings
The authors' results reveal that strategic renewal significantly impacted employment growth during the COVID-19 pandemic of family firms. Strategic renewal plays a crucial role in mitigating the negative effects of that crisis on employment by helping firms adapt and restructure their capabilities. The study also found that synergies among family members positively influenced innovation in organizational resilience and enhanced the positive effects of strategic renewal on employment growth.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature by emphasizing the importance of strategic renewal of family businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. It offers insights into mitigating vulnerability risks amidst crises and adds to the understanding of the strategic renewal process and its implications for the organizations. The findings hold theoretical implications for the field of strategic management and provide valuable insights into the unique challenges and opportunities faced by family firms in uncertain environments.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-11-2022-0771
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Zubaida Ashraf, Gul Afshan and Umar Farooq Sahibzada
An increasing number of organizations focus on creating value in economics and growing their aspect, encompassing human, social and environmental perspectives. Traditionally…
Abstract
Purpose
An increasing number of organizations focus on creating value in economics and growing their aspect, encompassing human, social and environmental perspectives. Traditionally, organizations mostly contained corporate social responsibility (CSR) as their actions only in an economically favorable situation. However, CSR can also be used in an unfavorable time as a strategic process to recover and sustain the organization during a crisis. The purpose of this study is to review six years (2015-2021) articles published on strategic CSR.
Design/methodology/approach
The literature review of the current study examines through source data and combination findings the role of strategic CSR during a time of crisis. The search was conducted using Google Scholars, Psych Info, Emerald Insight, Science Direct and ProQuest. The study reviewed six years of articles on strategic CSR (2015–2021).
Findings
The paper concludes by suggesting propositions and a model that indicated that effective communication encourages employees and external stakeholders to participate and enhance their contribution during the crisis and help gain a competitive advantage.
Research limitations/implications
The present review demonstrated managing crisis by incorporating strategic CSR initiatives. The role of communication is important for understanding the crisis, which builds a trust-based relationship with employees and external stakeholders and enhances their participation and engagement that can help sustain during the crisis. This study will help the organizations during the time of crisis because strategic CSR initiatives reduce the negative effect of the crisis and help achieve organizational competitive advantages.
Originality/value
The present review bridges the gap in strategic CSR during the COVID-19 crisis interface. This review aims to understand the role of strategic CSR during the time COVID-19 of crisis. This study contributes to the strategic CSR research by giving clarity regarding the managing crises of organizations.
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This study aims to investigate the influence of various categories of institutions on international joint ventures' (IJV) strategic mutation behavior from an institutional…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the influence of various categories of institutions on international joint ventures' (IJV) strategic mutation behavior from an institutional perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors test their hypotheses using a sample of 494 Chinese small and medium IJVs over a three‐year period (2006‐2008). They conducted empirical result with Cox hazard models.
Findings
Changes in law environment will increase the likelihood of IJVs' strategic mutation. Changes in governmental policy will increase the likelihood of IJVs' strategic mutation. The positive correlativity between the variance of law environment and the propensity of IJVs' strategic mutation will be positively moderated by the distance of normative institutional pillar. The positive correlativity between the variance of governmental policy and the propensity of IJVs' strategic mutation will be negatively moderated by IJV performance.
Originality/value
Variation of regulatory institutional pillar increases the likelihood of IJVs' strategic mutation. Meanwhile, the effects of law environment and governmental policy, which are two types of regulatory institutional pillar, are moderated by normative institutional pillar and firms' performance, respectively.
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Fabio Lotti Oliva, Jefferson Luiz Bution, Andrei Carlos Torresani Paza, Ricardo Augusto Martins, Marcelo Albuquerque, Riccardo Savio and Massimiliano Farina Briamonte
This study relies on the lessons learned from the recent pandemic crisis to propose a conceptual framework for organizational crisis management and illustrate its application in…
Abstract
Purpose
This study relies on the lessons learned from the recent pandemic crisis to propose a conceptual framework for organizational crisis management and illustrate its application in an organization that effectively protected its competitive position during the crisis.
Design/methodology/approach
Building upon the resource-based view and the dynamic capability theoretical framework, we first conducted a systematic literature review that involves content and bibliographic analysis. Subsequently, we developed a conceptual crisis management framework and applied it to the case of Hyundai Motor Brazil.
Findings
The systematic literature review found innovation and knowledge management as prominent response mechanisms to the pandemic crisis whereas the case provided a better understanding on how these mechanisms contributed to crisis navigation.
Practical implications
Managers will find valuable insights into the importance of linking risk management and crisis management, and leveraging innovation and knowledge to enhance resilience, with straightforward operationalization for benchmark.
Originality/value
This paper is original for relating enterprise risk management, innovation and knowledge management to each phase of existing crisis management processes. It enriches the theoretical and practical debate on the dynamic capabilities’ perspective of risk and crisis management.
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My-Trinh Bui and Thi-Thanh-Huyen Tran
In the wake of severe socio-economic damage, many firms have made creative and technological progress in their responses to the COVID-19 crisis. This paper examines internal and…
Abstract
Purpose
In the wake of severe socio-economic damage, many firms have made creative and technological progress in their responses to the COVID-19 crisis. This paper examines internal and external environmental complexity elements as antecedents of business responses and builds a framework for tourism firms to respond to the pandemic crisis.
Design/methodology/approach
This study obtained survey data from 395 respondents in the Vietnamese tourism and hospitality industry. A partial least squares structural equation modeling–artificial neural network approach was used to examine various combinations of internal and external environmental complexity elements that have different impacts on business responses and firms' performance.
Findings
The knowledge and practice created by the firm's employees (individual creativity), obtained from traditional contexts (traditionality) were identified as internal environmental complexity factors while practice learned from other firms (mimetic pressure), information processing (status certainty) and digital transformation (digital technology speed) were treated as external environmental complexity factors. Internal and external environmental complexity factors influence business responses and firms' performance positively but differently.
Practical implications
This study demonstrates that firms should integrate their internal environment of creativity and traditionality with external environmental factors of mimetic pressure, status certainty and digital technology speed to create better business responses, and thus firm performance in the COVID-19 era.
Originality/value
This investigation contributes to environmental research and narrows the existing research gap relating to the association between types of environmental complexity and firms' responsive action, which then influence firms' performance in terms of sustainable competitiveness.
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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.
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Carolina Turcato, Luciano Barin‐Cruz and Eugenio Avila Pedrozo
This study aims to investigate how an organic cotton production network learns to maintain its hybrid network and its sustainability in the face of internal and external pressures.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate how an organic cotton production network learns to maintain its hybrid network and its sustainability in the face of internal and external pressures.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative case study was conducted in Justa Trama, a Brazilian‐based organic cotton production network formed by six members with different roles and organisational logics.
Findings
The study contributes to the literature on hybrid organisations by suggesting that in the case of networks, a compromise strategy is required at the internal level and a manipulation strategy is required at the external level. The network has to learn how to engineer a compromise among internal members and to enforce change among external institutions to maintain its sustainability.
Social implications
The study was performed in Brazil, a country with serious social and environmental problems. The study thus informs managers of social economy organisations on how to deal with internal and external pressures to maintain their organisation's sustainability as well as policy makers on the importance of these alternative organisations and the importance of specific legislation to stimulate this type of initiative.
Originality/value
The body of research on how hybrid organisations learn to deal with the mutual influence of internal organisational responses and changes in external institutions is limited. Furthermore, this mutual influence has rarely been studied in the context of networks, in which multiple members have to work together to achieve organisational and network‐level objectives as well as to respond to institutional pressures.
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Natalia Garcia-Carbonell, Fernando Martin-Alcazar and Gonzalo Sanchez-Gardey
Despite the strong influence of Hambrick and Mason’s (1984) seminal work, the effects of top management team (TMT) characteristics on strategic processes remain unclear. This…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the strong influence of Hambrick and Mason’s (1984) seminal work, the effects of top management team (TMT) characteristics on strategic processes remain unclear. This study aims to go beyond the traditional upper echelon theory and to propose a human capital taxonomy of TMTs from the perspective of top human resources managers.
Design/methodology/approach
The research integrates arguments from the strategic human capital and strategic issue diagnosis literatures. An exploratory cluster analysis was conducted in an attempt to describe different human capital typologies in TMTs in a sample of 120 Spanish companies.
Findings
The exploratory analysis showed three distinct human capital profiles: “technocratic teams”, “highly skilled teams” and “operational teams”. In addition, this paper provides preliminary results about the effects of each profile in the above taxonomy on strategic issue diagnostic processes, suggesting that “highly skilled teams” present the most appropriate combination of human capital attributes.
Practical/implications
This analysis provides a guide for top managers regarding the human capital needs they may face when interpreting strategic issues in strategy formation processes.
Originality/value
This paper makes a twofold contribution to the extant literature: proposing an analysis of TMTs’ human capital from a synergistic perspective (“human capital profiles”) instead of using the traditional “more is better” approach and providing preliminary explanations about how those human capital combinations contribute to success in the strategic issue diagnosis process.