Differentiating Challenges, Risks, and Threats in Strategic Management: A Cognitive Bias Perspective

This article presents selected findings of an ontological analysis and examines the problems associated with the conceptual triad of challenges, risks, and threats. These problems arise both from the external environment and from the human factor. The triad affects the safety and efficiency of professional activity at the microeconomic level, particularly in research and design organizations involved in restoration projects for immovable cultural heritage properties. A literature review of sources addressing the problem under study is provided. The aim of the study is formulated as the search for ways to prevent the influence of this triad on the efficiency of the work performed, and the tasks required to achieve this aim are outlined. The study focuses on the assessment of comprehensive damage and indirect losses, as well as on approaches to measuring the effects produced by the triad. The range of methods and tools used in the study is specified. Several interim original results are obtained that identify the mechanism through which the triad contributes to error formation; the conceptual framework is refined, and a classification of challenges, risks, and threats representing real hazards is proposed. The triad may cause significant damage to an economic entity, impair its market activity, and damage its business reputation and brand value or, conversely, become a window of opportunity. The article presents a case involving the identification and correction of an error in the working documentation of a restoration project for an immovable cultural heritage property of regional significance after the documentation had passed expert review. Promising areas for further research are outlined, including a systematic study of triad formation and the use of threat assessment approaches in strategizing and planning systems. The results are discussed, and two interim conclusions are drawn.