Climate change and business planning: solutions to keep disruptions at bay
ISSN: 0275-6668
Article publication date: 25 May 2020
Issue publication date: 7 July 2021
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrative approach to help firms across multiple industries ensure operational continuity and manage ongoing climate-change related disruptions. It provides an implementation model that would first, help firms recognize this as an issue and second, start incorporating certain practices in their decision-making processes.
Design/methodology/approach
The analytical framework in this paper is based on the strategic management’s resource-based view. According to this view, certain resources provide sustainable competitive advantages because they score high on the following four dimensions: valuable, rare, inimitable and organized to exploit. This paper introduces a fifth dimension – the climate change resilience of the resource. Resources that are not always obvious choices for providing competitive advantages – air, freshwater, workspaces and customers – are evaluated. Each resource is analyzed through the perspective of two disparate industries.
Findings
This paper highlights to two important findings. First, resources that are rarely considered as providing competitive advantage can become important when the authors add the fifth dimension – climate change resilience. Second, location choices are critical to ensuring climate change resilience. When firms are location constrained, a contingency plan needs to be in place. These contingency plans could range from redesigning physical assets to redesigning human resources practices.
Originality/value
This paper illustrates the need and the utility of climate change resilience when assessing the sustainable competitive advantage of a resource. Using the above findings, this paper develops a model for implementing a location-based strategy, which firms in any industry could adopt to ensure the climate change resilience of their resources.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
We appreciate the feedback provided by the anonymous reviewers. Editor Nanci Healy was extremely supportive from the start and we are very thankful for her guidance. Our paper benefited a great deal from the review and comments provided by Deepthi Murthy and Jaimini Patel, especially the practitioner perspective that they provided.
Citation
Srikant, C.D. and Teckchandani, A. (2021), "Climate change and business planning: solutions to keep disruptions at bay", Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 42 No. 4, pp. 240-248. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBS-02-2020-0024
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited