Organizational Crisis Perception And Its Effect Mechanism On Strategic Choice In The Process Of Turnaround

Manufacture industries of China are facing a series of crisis in the turnaround process. However, the organizational crisis and its effects in turnaround process have not been well studied. Based on a systematic review of literature, this dissertation closely examined the following:(1) The construct of organizational crisis perception (OCP) of Chinese executives'in turnaround process (Study 1); (2) the influence factors and formation mechanism of OCP (Study 2); (3) the influence pattern and working mechanism of OCP on strategic choice (Study 3).This dissertation mainly consists of three studies. In Study 1, based on a systematic review of literature, the construct of OCP was developed and verified. In Sub-study 1, we employed a content analysis for coding the materials obtained from interviews; in sub-study 2, we developed a scale to explore the OCP construct dimensions; in sub-study 3, sample surveys and CFA, reliability and validation testing were used to confirm the OCP construct dimensions. The results of the three sub-studies revealed three main origins of crisis:resources crisis, capability crisis and competition crisis. OCP is a second-order four factors model. Four first-order factors are loss-gain, susceptibility, controllability and transformability. Two second-order factors are threat recognition (the interpretation of loss-gain and susceptibility) and transition recognition (the interpretation of controllability and transformability).In Study 2, we explored the influencing factors and the formation mechanism of OCP by analyzing the 247 questionnaires from 153 companies. The results indicate that:(1) the primary influencing factor of OCP is the origins of crisis. Resources crisis, capability crisis and competition crisis positively influenced the threat recognition dimension and negatively influenced the transition recognition dimension of OCP; (2) OCP was also influenced by executives'information search and alertness. Information search positively influenced both dimensions of OCP while alertness positively influenced transition recognition; (3) the reflection dimension of alertness positively influenced threat recognition directly, it positively influenced transition recognition indirectly through information search; the foresight dimension negatively influenced threat recognition and positively influenced transition recognition; the prospecting dimension had no significant influence on OCP.In Study 3, we explored the effects and mechanism of OCP on strategic choice. Two cases were employed to explore the relationship between OCP and strategic choice; Questionnaire study was employed to reveal the effects of OCP on strategic choice; experimental study further verified the mechanism of OCP on strategic choice. Results indicated that:(1) OCP significantly urges the enterprise to adopt the combination of strategic choices; (2) Threat recognition and transition recognition had positive interactive effects on collaborative exploitation and collaborative exploration; (3) transition recognition was a determinant which determined the effect pattern of OCP on strategic choice:the participants with low transition recognition and high opportunity recognition trend risk-taking; the participants with low transition recognition and high threat recognition trend risk-aversion; the participants with high transition recognition and high opportunity recognition trend risk-aversion; the participants with high transition recognition and high threat recognition trend risk-taking; (4) low transition recognition lead to contrast effect and high recognition lead to assimilation effect; (5) OCP influenced strategic choice indirectly through decision makers'interpretation of alternative options.Finally, the main research results were summarized, including the theoretical contribution, practical implications, as well as the limitations and further research directions.