Resources, autonomy and strategy : perceptions of competitive advantage in the UK automotive components industry.

Theory building in strategic management has traditionally suffered from strong demarcation lines. The case of the resource-based view of firm (RBV) which has emerged as an alternative approach to industry-based explanations of how organisations develop and sustain competitive advantage, particularly demonstrates this divide. Since then, these alternative views of competitive advantage have often been portrayed as mutually exclusive antagonists. This study sets out to examine the perceptions of strategic managers in the UK automotive components industry in relation to these two competing schools of thought which advocate advantage through resources (RBV) or advantage through residence (industry approaches). This industry has been chosen due to the clear potential for industry structure and internal competencies to influence competitive advantage. Using quantitative techniques, data from senior managers is analysed in order to establish the extent to which the views of industry practitioners converge or diverge with the theoretical or anecdotal offerings of the strategy literature. The findings of this thesis suggest that a complex hybrid of perceptions tends to prevail among respondents from the industry. This can be attributed to historical, operational and supply chain factors. Furthermore, the study finds that the lexicon of competitive advantage and the priorities of resources advocated in the literature are not shared by strategists in the industry. Accordingly, the study finds, strategic management theory in relation to the resource-based view requires further research using the methodology developed in this thesis as a foundation

Continuity Culture: A Key Factor for Building Resilience and Sound Recovery Capabilities

This article investigates the extent to which Jordanian service organizations seek to establish continuity culture through testing, training, and updating of their business continuity plans. A survey strategy was adopted in this research. Primary and secondary data were used. Semistructured interviews were conducted with five senior managers from five large Jordanian service organizations registered with the Amman Stock Exchange. The selection of organizations was made on the basis of simple random sampling. Interviews targeted the headquarters only in order to obtain a homogenous sample. Three out of five organizations could be regarded as crisis prepared and have better chances for recovery. The other two organizations exhibited characteristics of standard practice that only emphasizes the recovery aspect of business continuity management (BCM), while paying less attention to establishing resilient cultures and embedding BCM. The findings reveal that the ability to recover following major incidents can be improved by embedding BCM in the culture of the organization and by making BCM an enterprise-wide process. This is one of few meticulous studies that have been undertaken in the Middle East and the first in Jordan to investigate the extent to which service organizations focus on embedding BCM in the organizational culture

Information value distance and crisis management planning

Organizational learning during and post-crisis is well established in the management literature but consideration of learning for crisis and the sources of information perceived to be useful for crisis management planning have not previously been examined. This study evaluates data from 215 U.K.-based small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) about the perceived value of 11 sources of information between planning (i.e., firms with a crisis management plan) and non-planning respondents. For planning firms, the information sources considered to be useful are exclusively experience-based, and when information sources become less idiosyncratic and episodic, planning firms’ evaluations of their value begin to approximate the ratings given by non-planning firms. Furthermore, the concepts of relative value distance and value distance from threshold are original features of this study and offer new ways to evaluate the value of information sources for organizations wishing to provide information and support to improve business resilience and business continuity

Rethinking Organizational Resilience and Strategic Renewal in SMEs

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version.Building on work that associates organizational resilience with crisis recovery and strategic renewal, I examine how small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs) vary in the formalisation of activities intended to achieve strategic growth and activities to enhance resilience against acute operational interruptions. Drawing on data from 265 SMEs in the United Kingdom, the main argument of this paper is that variations in formalisation activities reflect differences in firm location, personal networks, the influence of external crisis events, and entrepreneurs’ attitudes towards the prevention of crises. The resulting typology identifies four clusters: Attentive Interventionists, Light Planners, Rooted Strategists and Reliant Neighbours. These findings contrast with prior theorizations of firms as either resilient or vulnerable and further illuminate our understanding of SME resilience and how this is shaped by historical, developmental and strategic factors. The study further develops associations between resilience and social capital, examines how locational choices generate a proximity premium, and develops a growth-survival-maturity perspective on SME resilience. Data reveals an interplay between an ensemble of entrepreneurial activities and decisions about planning, networks, learning, and location. Thus, the study offers a rethinking of prior theorizations about organizational resilience and strategic renewa

Exploring Crisis Management in UK Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

Despite a long-established crisis management literature that focuses on large enterprises, crisis management planning in the context of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is less extensively researched. Using data collected from 215 SMEs in the United Kingdom, this paper explores the perceptions and experiences of SMEs' managing directors in relation to crisis management planning. Furthermore, the paper examines differences in perceptions between planning and non-planning SMEs. Analysis reveals six factors that correspond to resilience through planning, financial impact, operational crisis management, the perfect storm, the aftermath of survival and atrophy. Results indicate how the experience of crisis and the type of crisis of type encountered affect managers' assessment of whether planning can be used to address crisis prevention and lower impact

Threat orientation in small and medium-sized enterprises: Understanding differences toward acute interruptions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the experience, impact and likelihood of an acute business interruption, along with the perceived ability to intervene, influences the “threat orientation” of owner-managers in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK. The concept of “threat orientation” is introduced in this study as a way to eschew the binary view of whether an organisation does or does not have processes and capabilities to respond to acute interruptions. Design/methodology/approach – “Threat orientation” is operationalised and survey data are collected from 215 SMEs in the UK. Data from owner-managers are analysed using multiple regression techniques. Findings – The results of this study provide empirical evidence to highlight the importance of firm age rather than size as a determinant of the propensity to formalise activities to deal with acute interruptions. Recent experience and the ability to intervene were statistically significant predictors of threat orientation but the likelihood and concern about specific types of threat was not found to positively influence threat orientation. Research limitations/implications – Although the data are self-report in nature, the respondents in the study are the chief decision and policy makers in their organisations and thus it is essential to understand the influences on their threat orientation. Results are generalisable only to UK SMEs. Originality/value – The findings of the paper contribute to a nascent understanding of planning for acute interruptions in SMEs and (despite the cross-sectional nature of the study), the findings clearly reinforce the need for continuing longitudinal research into how resilience develops in smaller organisations