Economic recessions, strategy, and performance: a synthesis

Journal of Strategy and Management

Volumn 4, Issue 2, 2011, Pages 96-115

  Latham, Scott ^a   Braun, Michael ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS LOWELL   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA   (United States)

Author keywords

Business cycles; Corporate strategy; Performance management; Recession

Indexed keywords

EID: 84879747431     PISSN: 1755425X     EISSN: 17554268     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1108/17554251111128592     Document Type: Article

References (64)

1. Alessandri, T.M. and Bettis, R.A. (2003), “Surviving the bulls and the bears: robust strategies and shareholder wealth”, Long Range Planning, Vol. 36 No. 1, pp. 13-35.
2. Bacot, L.M., Hartman, S. and Lundberg, O. (1992), “Adaptive strategies and survival in an environment dominated by economic decline”, Journal of Applied Business Research, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 34-44.
3. Beaver, G. and Ross, C. (1999), “Recession consequences on small business management and business development: the abandonment of strategy?”, Strategic Change, Vol. 8 No. 5, pp. 251-61.
4. Bigelow, R. and Chan, P. (1992), “Managing in difficult times: lessons from the most recent recession”, Management Decision, Vol. 30 No. 8, pp. 34-42.
5. Bohman, H. and Lindfors, M. (1998), “Management for change: on strategic change during recession”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 41 No. 1, pp. 57-60.
6. Bourgeois, L. (1981), “On the measurement of organizational slack”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 29-39.
7. Braun, M. and Latham, S. (2009), “When the big ‘R’ hits home: governance in family firms during economic recession”, Journal of Strategy and Management, Vol. 2 No. 2, pp. 120-44.
8. Brockhoff, K. and Pearson, A. (1998), “R&D budgeting reactions to a recession”, Management International Review, Vol. 38 No. 4, pp. 363-76.
9. Bromiley, P., Miller, K.D. and Rau, D. (2001), “Risk in strategic management research”, in Hitt, M.A., Freeman, R.E. and Harrison, J.S. (Eds), Handbook of Strategic Management, Blackwell, Malden, MA, pp. 259-88.
10. Caballero, R. and Hammour, M. (1994), “The cleansing effect of recessions”, American Economic Review, Vol. 84 No. 5, pp. 1350-68.
11. Chattopadhyay, P., Glick, W. and Huber, G. (2001), “Organizational action in response to threats and opportunities”, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 44 No. 5, pp. 937-55.
12. Cheng, J. and Kesner, I. (1997), “Organizational slack and response to environmental shifts: the impact of resource allocation patterns”, Journal of Management, Vol. 23 No. 1, pp. 1-18.
13. Chowdhury, S.D. and Lang, J.R. (1996), “Turnaround in small firms: an assessment of efficiency strategies”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 36 No. 2, pp. 169-79.
14. de Chernatony, L. and Knox, S. (1992), “Brand pricing in a recession”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 5-14.
15. DeDee, J.K. and Vorhies, D. (1998), “Retrenchment activities of small firms during economic downturn: an empirical investigation”, Journal of Small Business Management, Vol. 36 No. 3, pp. 46-61.
16. Deans, G., Kansal, C. and Mehltretter, S. (2009), “Making a key decision in a downturn: go on the offensive or be defensive?”, Ivey Business Journal Online, available at: www.iveybusinessjournal.com/article.asp?intArticle_ID=810 (accessed 12 April 2010).
17. Dierickx, I. and Cool, K. (1989), “Asset stock accumulation and sustainability of competitive advantage”, Management Science, Vol. 35 No. 12, pp. 1504-11.
18. Dobbs, R., Karakolev, T. and Malige, F. (2002), “Learning to love recessions”, McKinsey Quarterly, 6 August, available at; www.mckinseyquarterly.com/ghost.aspx?ID=/Learning_to_love_recessions_1197 (accessed 24 September 2010).
19. Dugal, S. and Morbey, G. (1995), “Revisiting corporate R&D spending during a recession”, Research Technology Management, Vol. 38 No. 4, pp. 23-7.
20. Geroski, P.A. and Gregg, P. (1997), Coping with Recession. UK Company Performance in Adversity, University Press, Cambridge.
21. Ghemawat, P. (2009), “The risk of not investing in a recession”, Sloan Management Review, Vol. 50 No. 3, pp. 51-8.
22. Gittell, J.H., Cameron, K., Lim, S. and Rivas, V. (2006), “Relationships, layoffs, and organizational resilience: airline industry responses to September 11”, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol. 42 No. 3, pp. 300-30.
23. Goodell, P. and Martin, C. (1992), “Marketing strategies for recession survival”, The Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 7 No. 4, pp. 5-16.
24. Hannan, M. and Freeman, J. (1977), “The population ecology of organizations”, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 82 No. 5, pp. 929-64.
25. Heifetz, R., Grashow, A. and Linsky, M. (2009), “Leadership in a (permanent) crisis”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 87, July/August, pp. 62-9.
26. Kahneman, D. and Tversky, A. (1979), “Prospect theory: an analysis of decision under risk”, Econometrica, Vol. 47 No. 2, pp. 262-91.
27. Kamber, T. (2002), “The brand manager's dilemma: understanding how advertising expenditures affect sales growth during a recession”, Journal of Brand Management, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 106-20.
28. Lamming, R. (2000), “Japanese supply chain relationships in recession”, Long Range Planning, Vol. 33 No. 6, pp. 757-78.
29. Latham, S. (2009), “Contrasting strategic response to economic recession in start-up versus established software firms”, Journal of Small Business Management, Vol. 47 No. 2, pp. 180-201.
30. Latham, S. and Braun, M. (2008), “The performance implications of financial slack during economic recession and recovery: observations from the software industry (2001-2003)”, Journal of Managerial Issues, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 30-52.
31. Laverty, K.J. (2004), “Managerial myopia or systemic short-termism?: The importance of managerial systems in valuing the long term”, Management Decision, Vol. 42 No. 8, pp. 949-62.
32. Lee, J. (2006), “Family firm performance: further evidence”, Family Business Review, Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 103-14.
33. Levinthal, D.A. (1991), “Random walks and organizational mortality”, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 36 No. 3, pp. 397-420.
34. Lohrke, F., Bedeian, A.G. and Palmer, T.B. (2004), “The role of top management teams in formulating and implementing turnaround strategies: a review and research agenda”, International Journal of Management Review, Vol. 5/6 No. 2, pp. 63-90.
35. McKelvey, B. and Aldrich, H. (1983), “Populations, natural selection, and applied organization science”, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 101-28.
36. McKinley, W., Cheng, J. and Schick, A. (1986), “Perceptions of resource criticality in times of resource scarcity: the case of university departments”, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 29 No. 3, pp. 623-32.
37. Mancke, R.B. (1974), “Causes of interfirm profitability differences: a new interpretation of the evidence”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 88 No. 2, pp. 181-93.
38. Marginson, D. and McAulay, L. (2008), “Exploring the debate on short-termism: a theoretical and empirical analysis”, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 29 No. 3, pp. 273-92.
39. Mascarenhas, B. and Aaker, D. (1989), “Strategy over the business cycle”, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 10 No. 3, pp. 199-210.
40. Michael, S. and Robbins, D.K. (1998), “Retrenchment among small manufacturing firms during recession”, Journal of Small Business Management, Vol. 36 No. 3, pp. 35-45.
41. Morbey, G. and Dugal, S. (1992), “Corporate R&D spending during recession”, Research Technology Management, Vol. 35 No. 4, pp. 42-57.
42. Navarro, P. (2005), “The well-timed strategy: managing the business cycle”, California Management Review, Vol. 48 No. 1, pp. 71-91.
43. Navarro, P., Bromiley, P. and Sottile, P. (2010), “Business cycle management and firm performance: tying the empirical knot”, Journal of Strategy and Management, Vol. 3 No. 1, pp. 50-71.
44. Nohria, N. and Gulati, R. (1996), “Is slack good or bad for innovation?”, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 39 No. 5, pp. 1245-64.
45. Nunez-Nickel, M. and Moyano-Fuentes, J. (2004), “Ownership structure of cooperatives as an environmental buffer”, Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 41 No. 7, pp. 1131-52.
46. Pearce, J. and Michael, S. (1997), “Marketing strategies that make entrepreneurial firms recession-resistant”, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 301-14.
47. Pearce, J. and Michael, S. (2006), “Strategies to prevent economic recessions from causing business failure”, Business Horizons, Vol. 49 No. 3, pp. 201-9.
48. Pearce, J.A. II and Robbins, D.K. (2008), “Strategic transformation as the essential last step in the process of business turnaround”, Business Horizons, Vol. 51 No. 2, pp. 121-30.
49. Rafferty, M. (2003), “Do business cycles alter the composition of research and development expenditures?”, Contemporary Economic Policy, Vol. 21 No. 3, pp. 394-405.
50. Rafferty, M. and Funk, M. (2004), “The effect of demand shocks on firm-financed R&D”, Research in Economics, Vol. 58 No. 3, pp. 187-203.
51. Ramanujam, V. and Varadarajan, P. (1989), “Research on corporate diversification: a synthesis”, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 10 No. 6, pp. 523-51.
52. Robbins, D.K. and Pearce, J.A. (1992), “Turnaround: retrenchment and recovery”, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 13 No. 4, pp. 287-309.
53. Roberts, K. (2003), “What strategic investments should you make during a recession to gain competitive advantage in the recovery?”, Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 31-9.
54. Schumpeter, J.A. (1936), The Theory of Economic Development, 2nd ed., Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
55. Schumpeter, J.A. (1939), Business Cycles, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.
56. Schumpeter, J.A. (1950), Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, 3rd ed., Harper, New York, NY.
57. Shama, A. (1993), “Marketing strategies during recession: a comparison of small and large firms”, Journal of Small Business Management, Vol. 31 No. 3, pp. 62-72.
58. Srinivasan, R., Lilien, G. and Rangaswamy, A. (2005), “Turning adversity into advantage: does proactive marketing during a recession pay off?”, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 109-25.
59. Staw, B.M., Sandelands, L.E. and Dutton, J.E. (1981), “Threat-rigidity effects in organizational behavior: a multilevel analysis”, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 26 No. 4, pp. 501-24.
60. Tan, J. and Peng, M. (2003), “Organizational slack and firm performance during economic transitions: two studies from an emerging economy”, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 23 No. 13, pp. 1249-63.
61. Tubbs, M. (2007), “The relationship between R&D and company performance”, Research Technology Management, Vol. 50 No. 6, pp. 23-30.
62. Tvede, L. (1997), Business Cycles: From John Law to Chaos Theory, Routledge Publishing, London.
63. Wang, X. (2009), “‘Chinese firms’ corporate strategies in the economic downturn”, SERI Quarterly, Vol. 2 No. 3, pp. 32-40.
64. Whittington, R. (1991), “Recession strategies and top management change”, Journal of General Management, Vol. 16 No. 3, pp. 11-28.