Title: Rational strategic decision-making during crises: a process approach

Authors: Marco I. Bonelli; Jiahao Liu

Addresses: School of Business and Leadership, Dr. Vishwanath Karad MIT World Peace University, Pune, Maharashtra, India ' Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1AG, UK

Abstract: As exemplified by the COVID-19 situation, there is a need to conduct strategic decision-making research through a process approach for crises where threats, uncertainties, instabilities, pressures, and various negative environmental factors are present or coming. The purpose of this research is to examine the presence of rational strategic decision-making processes and relevant factors involved in a crisis context from empirical managerial practice. This research is based on seven multi-case study interviews of both top and middle level managers from multiple industries. Empirical evidence indicates the predominance of a rational strategic decision-making process with intuitive elements incorporated within a situation of crisis. A rational strategic decision-making process with intuitive elements embedded in is derived and structured from the data collected. This paper further presents many influential factors in the processes that are either already known (e.g., information, uncertainty, heterogeneity, dynamism) or newly discovered/named (e.g., regulatory requirement, sustainability and heteroturbulence).

Keywords: crisis; strategic decision-making; SDM; strategic decision-making process; SDMP; rational strategic decision-making process.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMDM.2023.134050

International Journal of Management and Decision Making, 2023 Vol.22 No.4, pp.388 - 411

Received: 06 Jun 2022
Accepted: 30 Jun 2022
Published online: 10 Oct 2023 *

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