[...]... exploring cross-cultural differences in the strategic decision process 7.1 Overview of the companies and interviewees of the qualitative study 7.2 Overview of categories and parameter values for the qualitative content analysis 7.3 Threat and opportunity perception of the financial and economic crisis in Austrian and Slovene companies 7.4 Feasibility and urgency perception of the financial and economic crisis. .. about changes in the environment can have an effect on organizational responses (Staw et al 1981; Dutton and Jackson 1987) Failure to change belief systems following changes in the environment can lead to delays in taking necessary adaptive steps in strategy, which in turn can lead to organizational failure (Barr 1998) In their ‘upper echelons’ theory, Hambrick and Mason (1984) suggest that organizational... on the strategic decision-making process is the political perspective, referring to the power and influence processes involved in forming dominant strategic ideas within organizations This point of view also results from the understanding that in most cases there is not ‘the one’ strategic decision-maker in organizations who has perfect information at hand, but that decision-making is embedded in social... leading them to the following conclusion: “Rather than searching for global cross-cultural differences in strategic perceptions, it may be more fruitful to delineate the specific theoretical links that relate culture to strategy” (p 65) Therefore, they urged for a more ‘fine-grained’ approach to investigating the links between culture and strategic decision-making processes Ashkanasy et al (2004) point... question A: “Do differences in certain dimensions of national culture have an influence on the process of strategic adaptation to major changes within an organization’s environment?” · Research question B: “Do differences in certain dimensions of national culture have an influence on strategic action as an output of the strategic 5 1 Introduction: Researching strategic adaptation in a cross-cultural. .. finding already existing solutions and applying them in the context of one’s own organization can be seen as an at least partly creative process Unique recombinations of existing ideas or the use of existing ideas in new contexts can also lead to achieving unique strategic positions in the marketplace Any creative solutions generated, in turn, are again subject to both subjective interpretations and... even increasing value under changing environmental circumstances is the main purpose of strategic adaptation Failure to adapt to a changing environment can lead to fatal consequences This applies not only to the realm of business In a classical analogy, also species in the natural world have to adapt to changes in their ecosystems, such as, for example, the appearance of a new predator, to ensure survival... capabilities and internal design of an organization1 in order to achieve competitive advantage and being able to fulfil its social or economic mission (cf Hofer and Schendel 1978; Bourgeois 1980) Narayanan and Fahey (1982) refer to strategic decisions as those decisions that have not been encountered before in the same form, with no set of existing responses available within the organization, and with... Resource-based view Research and development Small and medium-sized enterprise (in the qualitative study, chapter 7) Standard deviation Slovenia Small and medium-sized enterprise Standard error United Kingdom United States Variance inflation factor XIII 1 Introduction: Researching strategic adaptation in a cross-cultural context The main reason for conducting business is creating and maintaining value (cf Conner... (2008) point out the need for taking a step back, frequently interrupting routines to question the status-quo, and re-thinking whether the current strategic path is still adequate, or needs to be adapted and changed It is through adaptive action based on continuous reflection on strategy-environment fit that managers can keep their organizations in line with external developments Maintaining or even increasing . the financial and economic crisis 164 Feasibility perception of the financial and economic crisis 168 Urgency perception of the financial and economic crisis. findings on the strategic adaptation process 245 10.2 Discussion of findings on cultural, industry, and size differences in strategic adaptation to an economic