IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/eoe/escoed/escoe-dp-2024-04.html

Managing to Adapt: Structured Management Practices and Firm Resilience

Author

Listed:
  • Jones, Kyle
  • Li, Wei
  • Mizen, Paul
  • Riley, Rebecca
  • Schneebacher, Jakob

Abstract

Why do some firms adapt and even thrive when major unexpected shocks occur? We hypothesise that structured management practices are a General Purpose Technology that helps firms adapt to unforeseen shocks. Using a novel, custom-designed survey, we find that firms with more structured management practices were more resilient to the large and unexpected shock of the Covid-19 pandemic, adopting homeworking and online sales practices more fully, adapting supply chains more effectively, and avoiding larger falls in their sales. Linking at the firm level to a high-frequency business survey, we show that firms with highly structured management practices undertook more product, process and logistics innovation to facilitate enforced changes in working practices and business operations. We conclude that this episode illustrates the many mechanisms by which structured management practices may improve firms’ resilience to shocks.

Suggested Citation

  • Jones, Kyle & Li, Wei & Mizen, Paul & Riley, Rebecca & Schneebacher, Jakob, 2024. "Managing to Adapt: Structured Management Practices and Firm Resilience," Discussion Papers escoe-dp-2024-04, Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence.
    • Handle: RePEc:eoe:escoed:escoe-dp-2024-04
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.repository-escoe.com/id/eprint/37/1/ESCoE%20DP%202024-04.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gilbert Cette & Jimmy Lopez & Jacques Mairesse & Giuseppe Nicoletti, 2020. "Economic Adjustment during the Great Recession: The Role of Managerial Quality," NBER Working Papers 27954, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Achyuta Adhvaryu & Namrata Kala & Anant Nyshadham, 2022. "Management and Shocks to Worker Productivity," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 130(1), pages 1-47.
    3. Gilbert Cette & Jimmy Lopez & Jacques Mairesse & Giuseppe Nicoletti, 2020. "Economic Adjustment during the Great Recession: The Role of Managerial Quality," NBER Working Papers 27954, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Pamela S. Barr, 1998. "Adapting to Unfamiliar Environmental Events: A Look at the Evolution of Interpretation and Its Role in Strategic Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 9(6), pages 644-669, December.
    5. repec:ehl:lserod:130291 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Thomas Sampson, 2017. "Brexit: The Economics of International Disintegration," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(4), pages 163-184, Fall.
    7. Bonadio, Barthélémy & Huo, Zhen & Levchenko, Andrei A. & Pandalai-Nayar, Nitya, 2021. "Global supply chains in the pandemic," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    8. Jovanovic, Boyan & Rousseau, Peter L., 2005. "General Purpose Technologies," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 18, pages 1181-1224, Elsevier.
    9. Andrea Lamorgese & Megha Patnaik & Andrea Linarello & Fabiano Schivardi, 2024. "Management Practices and Resilience to Shocks: Evidence from COVID-19," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 70(12), pages 9058-9072, December.
    10. Nicholas Bloom & Christos Genakos & Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen, 2011. "Management Practices Across Firms and Countries," CEP Discussion Papers dp1109, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    11. Jun Du & Oleksandr Shepotylo, 2022. "UK trade in the time of COVID‐19: A review," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(5), pages 1409-1446, May.
    12. Nicholas Bloom & John Van Reenen, 2007. "Measuring and Explaining Management Practices Across Firms and Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(4), pages 1351-1408.
    13. Erik Brynjolfsson & John J. Horton & Adam Ozimek & Daniel Rock & Garima Sharma & Hong-Yi TuYe, 2020. "COVID-19 and Remote Work: An Early Look at US Data," NBER Working Papers 27344, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. John (Jianqiu) Bai & Erik Brynjolfsson & Wang Jin & Sebastian Steffen & Chi Wan, 2021. "Digital Resilience: How Work-From-Home Feasibility Affects Firm Performance," NBER Working Papers 28588, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Rajshree Agarwal & Constance E. Helfat, 2009. "Strategic Renewal of Organizations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(2), pages 281-293, April.
    16. Mary Tripsas, 1997. "Unraveling The Process Of Creative Destruction: Complementary Assets And Incumbent Survival In The Typesetter Industry," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(S1), pages 119-142, July.
    17. Rebecca Henderson, 1993. "Underinvestment and Incompetence as Responses to Radical Innovation: Evidence from the Photolithographic Alignment Equipment Industry," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 24(2), pages 248-270, Summer.
    18. Maximilian Röglinger & Ralf Plattfaut & Vincent Borghoff & Georgi Kerpedzhiev & Jörg Becker & Daniel Beverungen & Jan Brocke & Amy Looy & Adela del-Río-Ortega & Stefanie Rinderle-Ma & Michael Rosemann, 2022. "Exogenous Shocks and Business Process Management," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 64(5), pages 669-687, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. J. P. Eggers & Sarah Kaplan, 2009. "Cognition and Renewal: Comparing CEO and Organizational Effects on Incumbent Adaptation to Technical Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(2), pages 461-477, April.
    2. C. A. K. Lovell, 2021. "The Pandemic, The Climate, and Productivity," CEPA Working Papers Series WP112021, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    3. Jacqueline Kirtley & Siobhan O'Mahony, 2023. "What is a pivot? Explaining when and how entrepreneurial firms decide to make strategic change and pivot," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(1), pages 197-230, January.
    4. Gilbert Cette & Jimmy Lopez & Jacques Mairesse & Giuseppe Nicoletti, 2024. "Employment, Output and Productivity Adjustment During the Great Recession: The Role of Managerial Quality," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 46, pages 101-108, Spring.
    5. Cirera,Xavier & Vargas Da Cruz,Marcio Jose & Grover,Arti Goswami & Iacovone,Leonardo & Medvedev,Denis & Pereira Lopez,Mariana De La Paz & Reyes,Santiago, 2021. "Firm Recovery during COVID-19 : Six Stylized Facts," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9810, The World Bank.
    6. Jacques Bughin & Nicolas van Zeebroeck, 2024. "Strategic Renewal and Corporate Return of Digital Transformation," Working Papers TIMES² 2024-071, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    7. Brian Wu & Zhixi Wan & Daniel A. Levinthal, 2014. "Complementary assets as pipes and prisms: Innovation incentives and trajectory choices," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(9), pages 1257-1278, September.
    8. Nicoletti, Giuseppe & von Rueden, Christina & Andrews, Dan, 2020. "Digital technology diffusion: A matter of capabilities, incentives or both?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    9. Bilicka, Katarzyna & Scur, Daniela, 2024. "Organizational capacity and profit shifting," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    10. Gilbert Cette & Jimmy Lopez & Jacques Mairesse & Giuseppe Nicoletti, 2020. "Economic Adjustment during the Great Recession: The Role of Managerial Quality," NBER Working Papers 27954, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Markku V. J. Maula & Thomas Keil & Shaker A. Zahra, 2013. "Top Management’s Attention to Discontinuous Technological Change: Corporate Venture Capital as an Alert Mechanism," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(3), pages 926-947, June.
    12. Trunschke, Markus & Peters, Bettina & Czarnitzki, Dirk & Rammer, Christian, 2024. "Pandemic effects: Do innovation activities of firms suffer from Long COVID?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(7).
    13. André de Waal, 2011. "Strategy Only Matters A Bit: The role of Strategy in the High Performance Organization," Working Papers 2011/02, Maastricht School of Management.
    14. Girum Abebe & Tetsushi Sonobe, 2012. "Management Practices, Self-Selection into Management Training Participation, and Training Effects in the Garment Industry in Ethiopia," GRIPS Discussion Papers 11-23, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
    15. Hazhir Rahmandad & Nelson Repenning, 2016. "Capability erosion dynamics," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(4), pages 649-672, April.
    16. Bohdan Kukharskyy & Michael Pflüger, 2011. "Relational Contracts and the Economic Well-Being of Nations," Working Papers 095, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    17. Natalie Chun & Soohyung Lee, 2015. "Bonus compensation and productivity: evidence from Indian manufacturing plant-level data," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 47-58, February.
    18. Mario BENASSI & Matteo LANDONI & Francesco RENTOCCHINI, 2017. "University Management Practices and Academic Spin-offs," Departmental Working Papers 2017-11, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    19. Richard Dion & Robert Fay, 2008. "Understanding Productivity: A Review of Recent Technical Research," Discussion Papers 08-3, Bank of Canada.
    20. Delis, Manthos D. & Tsionas, Mike G., 2018. "Measuring management practices," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 65-77.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • M10 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - General
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    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:eoe:escoed:escoe-dp-2024-04. 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: Communications Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/escoeuk.html .

    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.