Editorial

Abstract

Dear Reader,

We are pleased to present the Special Issue of the Iberoamerican Journal of Strategic Management, with the theme: “Strategic responses to crisis and uncertainties”. In our 2020 editorial we presented a series of indicatives highlighting the need for research that would provide a better understanding of the crisis and its impacts in diverse sectors, both past crises and the most recent one, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Apart from understanding the impact, it is essential to advance research that provides a better understanding about the possible actions to face these periods of crisis. In the call for this special issue we encouraged, above all, researches that advance the discussion in the field of human actions and the role of individuals in the face of crisis and uncertainties in the organizational environment.

In this issue we present seven articles that provide significant contributions in this field. We start with the article “Strategic changes and dynamic capacities in hotels marked by uncertainty” by Wendell de Moura Domingos (UFPE) and Yákara Vasconcelos Pereira (UFPE). The goal was to analyze the existence of similarities and diferences in the strategic changes and dynamic capabilities between two hotels located in the na Coastal Region of Cabo de Santo Agostinho and Porto de Galinhas, two regions with different stages of touristic development and marked by market uncertainties. Based on multiple cases and content analysis, the results indicate the existence of a relationship between cooperation strategies and the development of tourism in the region.

The second article “Adaptation and strategic reinvention: performance of private health companies in pandemic times” was written by de Juliana da Fonseca Capssa Lima Sausen (Unijuí), Daniel Knebel Baggio (Unijuí), Maria Margarete Baccin Brizolla (Unijuí) e Taísa Schéfer Roveda (Unijuí). The goal was to investigate when and to what extent private health institutions adapt and reinvent themselves strategically during a pandemic. Through a qualitative approach using content analysis, the results demonstrate that the changed and the strategic adaptation happens, initially, by the influence of the external environment, and then by the company’s ability to identify opportunities and implement development actions and routine, processes and dynamics, expanding such opportunities to future perspectives and broader contexts.

The third article “Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the relationship between capital structure and performance: Analysis of companies listed on B3” was written by de Thiago Borges de Souza (UFRGS), Wendy Beatriz Witt Haddad Carraro (UFRGS) and Alan Bandeira Pinheiro (UFPR). The study’s goal was to identify, by sector, the impact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the relationship between capital structure and the performance of Brazilian companies listed in the B3. The results show that the pandemic raised the level of debt and diminished the performance in the companies in the sample analyzed.

The fourth article “Digital Transformation and COVID-19: A multiple case study on food micro and small enterprises” is by Erica Santos de Oliveira (UFU), Núbia Cristina Fernandes (UFU), Juliane Silvestre (UFU), Vérica Freitas (UFU) and Verônica Angélica Freitas de Paula (UFU). The goal was to analyze the pandemic context in food micro and small enterprises (MSEs), as well as the digital transformations that happened from the adoption of new communication and sale channels. Based on the study of multiple cases the research describes the impact of the pandemic in (MSEs) of the food sector and how the digital transformation was driven and accelerated by this new context.

The fifth article, “Moderating effect of the economic crisis and market turbulence in small companies in the legal amazon” was written by Rodrigo Marques de Almeida (UFSM) Guerra, Luís Felipe Dias Lopes (UFSM) and Maria Emília Camargo (UFSM). The goal was to investigate the moderating effect of variable economic crisis and market turbulence in the relationship between open-mindedness and entrepreneurial resilience of managers working in small companies in the Legal Amazônia. Through the Explanatory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling of 299 managers, the empirical model demonstrates the moderating effect of the variable economic crisis and market turmoil on MA and RE in an environment of resource constraints further aggravated by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The sixth article, “Open strategizing and organizational resilience considering the environmental uncertainty”, was written by Felipe Kopp Leite (UFSC) and Rosalia Aldraci Barbosa Lavarda (UFSC). The goal of the study was to investigate how the open strategizing phenomenon relates to the organizational resilience, in situations of environmental uncertainty. As results of the theoretical study, the authors point out that: (a) organization with reactive preparation overcome uncertainty through inclusion and flexibility; (b) organization with high risk or process-based do not converge to the phenomenon of open strategizing; (c) organization focused on resilience overcome unvcertainty through learning from the past, transparency of information and inclusion of actors in the strategy formation.

To end this issue, the seventh article, “Relationship evolution between top and middle management in a strategic implementation process in the context of the COVID-19 crisis” was written by Livia Aquino Machado (FDC), Maria Elisa Brandão Bernardes (FDC) and Samir Lótfi Vaz (FDC). The goal was to investigate the evolution of the relationship between senior management and middle management in the implementation of strategy in the context of crisis, more specifically the crisis generated by COVID-19. Through a case study the result of the research show that the COVID-19 crisis made it possible to bring senior management and middle management closer, intensified by the meetings of the Crisis Committee, catalyzing the process of diminishing ambiguity and the opening of senior management for the presentation and acceptance of ideas coming from middle management.

We wish you all an excellent read!