Disasters and the Luck of the Draw

MNE decision-making through the lens of serendipity, with Gloria (Linglin) Zheng, Mariano Heyden, and Ricarda Bouncken.

Highlights

Why do some MNEs manage to thrive amidst global disasters? Amidst the most tumultuous of unprecedented global disasters, some MNEs still seem to thrive. While the MNE-disaster response literature often considers responses as deliberately planned actions, some organizations simply happen to be at the ‘right place at the right time’. In this study, we apply the emerging theoretical lens of serendipity to theorize MNE disaster response, illustrated by Chinese MNE’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. This unprecedented crisis has shown mixed effects on business that need further discussion and revives the gap between theory, practice, and chance. We collect 89 articles from Caijing—an authoritative business magazine in China and conducted a qualitative analysis of manager-oriented discourse to investigate how the impact of COVID-19 affected the responses of their MNEs. We use the emerging serendipity perspective to recast and interpret reasons behind these mixed outcomes. Overall, we advance a timely introduction of serendipity to the MNE disaster response literature.

Cite

Zheng, L. & Wechtler, H., Heyden, M., Bouncken, R. (2023). Disasters and the Luck of the Draw: MNE Decision-Making through the Lens of Serendipity. Journal of International Management.