IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bushor/v64y2021i5p683-695.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Business continuity in the COVID-19 emergency: A framework of actions undertaken by world-leading companies

Author

Listed:
  • Margherita, Alessandro
  • Heikkilä, Marikka

Abstract

The COVID-19 emergency has urged companies to operate in new ways to face supply chain interruptions, shifts in customer demand, and risks to workforce health. The organizational ability to respond to critical contingencies is crucial for business leaders in the perspective of continuing business. In our research, we investigate the actions undertaken by 50 world-leading corporations to respond to the pandemic. Applying content analysis to web pages and social network posts, we extract 77 actions related to 13 sub-areas and integrate these into a five-level framework that encompasses operations, customer, workforce, leadership, and community-related responses. We also describe six illustrative company examples of how the emergency can generate opportunities for creating new value. The study advances the scholarly discussion on the impact of emergencies on business continuity and can help leaders define response strategies and actions in the current challenge.

Suggested Citation

  • Margherita, Alessandro & Heikkilä, Marikka, 2021. "Business continuity in the COVID-19 emergency: A framework of actions undertaken by world-leading companies," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 64(5), pages 683-695.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:64:y:2021:i:5:p:683-695
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2021.02.020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681321000227
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bushor.2021.02.020?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Parker, Hamieda & Ameen, Khadija, 2018. "The role of resilience capabilities in shaping how firms respond to disruptions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 535-541.
    2. Strandvik, Tore & Holmlund, Maria & Lähteenmäki, Ilkka, 2018. "“One of these days, things are going to change!” How do you make sense of market disruption?," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 477-486.
    3. Torabi, S.A. & Mansouri, S.A., 2015. "Integrated business continuity and disaster recovery planning: Towards organizational resilienceAuthor-Name: Sahebjamnia, N," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 242(1), pages 261-273.
    4. Santiago Lago-Peñas & Elena Rivo-López & Mónica Villanueva-Villar, 2016. "On the relationship between corporate governance and value creation in an economic crisis: Empirical evidence for the Spanish case," Working Papers. Collection C: Family business 1602, Universidade de Vigo, GEN - Governance and Economics research Network.
    5. Archibugi, Daniele & Filippetti, Andrea & Frenz, Marion, 2013. "Economic crisis and innovation: Is destruction prevailing over accumulation?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 303-314.
    6. Coombs, W. Timothy & Laufer, Daniel, 2018. "Global Crisis Management – Current Research and Future Directions," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 199-203.
    7. Harry Bouwman & Jukka Heikkilä & Marikka Heikkilä & Carlo Leopold & Timber Haaker, 2018. "Achieving agility using business model stress testing," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 28(2), pages 149-162, May.
    8. Sáenz, María Jesús & Revilla, Elena & Acero, Beatriz, 2018. "Aligning supply chain design for boosting resilience," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 443-452.
    9. Hojat Rezaei Soufi & S. Ali Torabi & Navid Sahebjamnia, 2019. "Developing a novel quantitative framework for business continuity planning," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(3), pages 779-800, February.
    10. Sabatino, Michele, 2016. "Economic crisis and resilience: Resilient capacity and competitiveness of the enterprises," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 1924-1927.
    11. Anita Jose & Shang-Mei Lee, 2007. "Environmental Reporting of Global Corporations: A Content Analysis based on Website Disclosures," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 72(4), pages 307-321, June.
    12. Brahim Herbane, 2010. "The evolution of business continuity management: A historical review of practices and drivers," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(6), pages 978-1002.
    13. Sahebjamnia, Navid & Torabi, S. Ali & Mansouri, S. Afshin, 2018. "Building organizational resilience in the face of multiple disruptions," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 63-83.
    14. Turoff, Murray & Hiltz, Starr Roxanne & Bañuls, Víctor A. & Van Den Eede, Gerd, 2013. "Multiple perspectives on planning for emergencies: An introduction to the special issue on planning and foresight for emergency preparedness and management," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 80(9), pages 1647-1656.
    15. Yang, Zhilin & Jiang, Ling (Alice), 2015. "Managing corporate crisis in China: Sentiment, reason, and law," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 193-201.
    16. López, Cristina & Ishizaka, Alessio, 2019. "A hybrid FCM-AHP approach to predict impacts of offshore outsourcing location decisions on supply chain resilience," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 495-507.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fatma Lestari & Margaret Cook & Kelly Johnstone & Miranda Surya Wardhany & Robiana Modjo & Baiduri Widanarko & Devie Fitri Octaviani, 2022. "COVID-19 in the Workplace in Indonesia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-23, February.
    2. John Wilson Kimanzi & Anne Christine Kabui & Onesmus Mbaabu Mutiiria, 2024. "Effect of Knowledge Succession on Business Continuity of Community-Based Organizations in Kitui County, Kenya," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 19(6), pages 1-13, December.
    3. Elia, Gianluca & Solazzo, Gianluca & Lerro, Antonio & Pigni, Federico & Tucci, Christopher L., 2024. "The digital transformation canvas: A conceptual framework for leading the digital transformation process," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 67(4), pages 381-398.
    4. repec:ers:journl:v:xxiv:y:2021:i:4:p:955-976 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Isabela Caroline de Sousa & Tiago F. A. C. Sigahi & Izabela Simon Rampasso & Gustavo Hermínio Salati Marcondes de Moraes & Walter Leal Filho & João Henrique Paulino Pires Eustachio & Rosley Anholon, 2024. "A Delphi–Fuzzy Delphi Study on SDGs 9 and 12 after COVID-19: Case Study in Brazil," Forecasting, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-18, July.
    6. Noemi Marujo & Maria do Rosário Borges & Jaime Serra & Rosa Coelho, 2021. "Strategies for Creative Tourism Activities in Pandemic Contexts: The Case of the ‘Saídas de Mestre’ Project," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-17, September.
    7. Mohamed Saeudy & Ali Meftah Gerged & Khaldoon Albitar, 2022. "Accounting Perspectives on The Business Value of Big Data During and Beyond The COVID-19 Pandemic," Journal of Accounting and Management Information Systems, Faculty of Accounting and Management Information Systems, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, vol. 21(2), pages 174-199, June.
    8. Paolo Roffia & Marina Dabić, 2024. "The role of management control and integrated information systems for the resilience of SMEs," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 18(5), pages 1353-1375, May.
    9. Cherbib, Jihene, 2024. "Exploring the interplay between entrepreneurial orientation, causation and effectuation under unexpected covid-19 uncertainty: Insights from large French banks," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    10. Rialti, Riccardo & Filieri, Raffaele, 2024. "Leaders, let’s get agile! Observing agile leadership in successful digital transformation projects," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 67(4), pages 439-452.
    11. Anna Kosieradzka & Justyna Smagowicz & Cezary Szwed, 2022. "Application of Protective Measures against COVID-19 in Polish Production Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-23, October.
    12. Jolene Tan & Jeremy Lim-Soh & Poh Lin Tan, 2024. "The Impact of Teleworking on Women’s Work–Life Balance and Life Satisfaction: a Longitudinal Study from Singapore," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 19(5), pages 2595-2615, October.
    13. Noorsidi Aizuddin Mat Noor & Nurhadina Anati Md Shah & Nuramalina Salwa Harun & Siti Zaleha Daud & Hairul Nizam Mansor & Farhana Diana Deris & Afizan Mohktar, 2025. "Disaster Resilience Planning for Risk Mitigation and Business Continuity," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 9(5), pages 5270-5281, May.
    14. Obłój, Krzysztof & Voronovska, Roksolyana, 2024. "How business pivots during war: Lessons from Ukrainian companies’ responses to crisis," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 93-105.
    15. Julia Siderska, 2021. "The Adoption of Robotic Process Automation Technology to Ensure Business Processes during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-20, July.
    16. Akshay Patidar & Monica Sharma & Rajeev Agrawal & Kuldip Singh Sangwan & Prabir Sarkar, 2024. "Building supply chain resilience in developing economies: A weighted Ishikawa diagram approach," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 363-386, March.
    17. Oleksandra Mandych & Arkadii Mykytas & Tetiana Ustik & Svitlana Zaika & Olena Zaika, 2021. "The development of theoretical, methodological and practical recommendations of the innovative development vectors of business process reengineering and strategic management of enterprises," Technology audit and production reserves, Socionet;Technology audit and production reserves, vol. 6(4(62)), pages 21-25.
    18. Jaim, Jasmine, 2025. "Challenges of women entrepreneurs in securing support from formal sources: A case study in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 229-239.
    19. John Wilson Kimanzi & Anne Christine Kabui & Onesmus Mbaabu Mutiiria, 2024. "Effect of Knowledge Succession on Business Continuity of Community-Based Organizations in Kitui County, Kenya," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 19(4), pages 201-201, July.
    20. Sarraf, Shagun & Kushwaha, Amit Kumar & Kar, Arpan Kumar & Dwivedi, Yogesh K. & Giannakis, Mihalis, 2024. "How did online misinformation impact stockouts in the e-commerce supply chain during COVID-19 – A mixed methods study," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    21. Czakon, Wojciech & Hajdas, Monika & Radomska, Joanna, 2023. "Playing the wild cards: Antecedents of family firm resilience," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 14(1).
    22. Drăgan, George Bogdan & Ben Arfi, Wissal & Tiberius, Victor & Ammari, Aymen, 2023. "Gravitating exogenous shocks to the next normal through entrepreneurial coopetive interactions: A PLS-SEM and fsQCA approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ahmad Jafari Ghezelhesar & Ali Bozorgi-Amiri, 2022. "A novel approach to selection of resilient measures portfolio under disruption and uncertainty: a case study of e-payment service providers," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 22(5), pages 5477-5527, November.
    2. Ana Maria Corrales-Estrada & Loyda Lily Gómez-Santos & Cesar Augusto Bernal-Torres & Jaime Eric Rodriguez-López, 2021. "Sustainability and Resilience Organizational Capabilities to Enhance Business Continuity Management: A Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-25, July.
    3. Julia Hillmann, 2021. "Disciplines of organizational resilience: contributions, critiques, and future research avenues," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 879-936, May.
    4. João Paulo Santos Aragão & Marcele Elisa Fontana, 2022. "Outsourcing Strategies in Public Services under Budgetary Constraints: Analysing Perceptions of Public Managers," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 61-77, March.
    5. Zio, E., 2018. "The future of risk assessment," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 176-190.
    6. Yuan, Ruizhi & Luo, Jun & Liu, Martin J. & Yu, Jiang, 2022. "Understanding organizational resilience in a platform-based sharing business: The role of absorptive capacity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 85-99.
    7. Antonio Miceli & Birgit Hagen & Maria Pia Riccardi & Francesco Sotti & Davide Settembre-Blundo, 2021. "Thriving, Not Just Surviving in Changing Times: How Sustainability, Agility and Digitalization Intertwine with Organizational Resilience," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-17, February.
    8. Gebhardt, Maximilian & Spieske, Alexander & Kopyto, Matthias & Birkel, Hendrik, 2022. "Increasing global supply chains’ resilience after the COVID-19 pandemic: Empirical results from a Delphi study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 59-72.
    9. Sooksan Kantabutra & Nuttasorn Ketprapakorn, 2021. "Toward an Organizational Theory of Resilience: An Interim Struggle," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-28, November.
    10. Sahebjamnia, Navid & Torabi, S. Ali & Mansouri, S. Afshin, 2018. "Building organizational resilience in the face of multiple disruptions," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 63-83.
    11. Hosseini, Seyedmohsen & Ivanov, Dmitry & Dolgui, Alexandre, 2019. "Review of quantitative methods for supply chain resilience analysis," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 285-307.
    12. Ren, Huanyu & Wang, Chao & Mu, Dong & Lim, Ming K. & Yue, Xiongping & Hu, Xiaoqian & Peng, Rui & Tsao, Yu-Chung, 2024. "Resilience strategies in an intertwined supply network: Mitigating the vulnerability under disruption ripple effects," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 278(C).
    13. Wang, Yijing & Laufer, Daniel, 2020. "How does crisis management in China differ from the West?: A review of the literature and directions for future research," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 26(1).
    14. Jaim, Jasmine, 2025. "Challenges of women entrepreneurs in securing support from formal sources: A case study in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 229-239.
    15. Anna Wziątek-Kubiak & Marek Pęczkowski, 2021. "Strengthening the Innovation Resilience of Polish Manufacturing Firms in Unstable Environments," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 12(2), pages 716-739, June.
    16. Ron Berger & Ralf Wagner & Paul M. Dion & Olga Matthias, 2025. "Disrupting disruptions: enhancing supply chain resilience—lessons from the US Air Force," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 347(3), pages 1163-1192, April.
    17. Bakhtiar Ostadi & Mohammad Mahdi Seifi & Ali Husseinzadeh Kashan, 2021. "A multi-objective model for resource allocation in disaster situations to enhance the organizational resilience and maximize the value of business continuity with considering events interactions," Journal of Risk and Reliability, , vol. 235(5), pages 814-830, October.
    18. Su, Wenjia & Junge, Sebastian, 2023. "Unlocking the recipe for organizational resilience: A review and future research directions," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 1086-1105.
    19. Brahim Herbane, 2020. "Locational Contiguity and Business Continuity: Perceived Organizational Resilience of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises in U.K. Business Parks," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(2), pages 21582440209, May.
    20. Obłój, Krzysztof & Voronovska, Roksolyana, 2024. "How business pivots during war: Lessons from Ukrainian companies’ responses to crisis," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 93-105.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:64:y:2021:i:5:p:683-695. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.