Firm and industry adaptation to climate change: a review of climate adaptation studies in the business and management field

Firms and industries will have a central role in supporting societal adaptation to the physical impacts of climate change, especially in more directly affected sectors such as agriculture, forestry, construction, or transportation. However, the business and management field has repeatedly been criticized for its lack of engagement with climate change as a pressing issue, and adaptation to the physical impacts of climate change in particular. Our review of adaptation studies in the business and management field suggests that most firm and industry adaptation studies focus on how firms adjust to changing business conditions because of the emergence of new competitors, new products, and markets or because of changed political, economic, and legal conditions; they largely exclude firm adjustments to the changing dynamics of the natural environment. Studies on firm and industry adaptation to climate impacts specifically are beginning to emerge, but they are sparse. There is still little cross‐disciplinary work integrating findings from the natural sciences into business thinking. We also find few considerations of the implications and consequences of climate change for firms and industries to date. This article provides an overview over the existing literature on firm adaptation to climate change, outlines research gaps, and suggests pathways for future research. WIREs Clim Change 2013, 4:397–416. doi: 10.1002/wcc.214 This article is categorized under: Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change > Institutions for Adaptation