Achieving success during crises : the case of BOSICO PI Ltd

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i UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM

FACULTY OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS

ACHIEVING SUCCESS DURING CRISES – THE CASE OF

BOSICO PI LTD

MASTER THESIS

SUPERVISOR: Dr. Ranjita Singh

SECOND REVIEWER: Dr. Wendelien van Eerde

STUDENT ID: Mariya Bazoleva 5924901

PROGRAM: MSc Business Studies

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STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

“I, the undersigned, declare that this Master Thesis is my own original work, and I give permission that it may be photocopied and made available for inter-library loan.”

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ABSTRACT

Survival and successful development during crises represents a great challenge for companies. In order to be able to manage the difficulties posed by the market turbulences organizations need to employ certain dynamic capabilities that they developed and nurtured through the years. Such capabilities prove to be of major importance for coping with the economic and market disadvantages brought about by the hyperinflation in Bulgaria in 1997 and Bulgaria’s EU accession in 2007 as seen in the case of BOSICO. The present research finds that, for the Bulgarian organization BOSICO operating in the metal articles industry, unique managerial decisions, consistent ability to sense and seize opportunities, transfer of knowledge and the capability to establish first-mover advantages were key to its successful management of the above mentioned market crises.

Key words: Dynamic capabilities, performance, crisis, decision-making, sensing and seizing of opportunities, knowledge transfer, first-mover advantages

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Links to literature ... 44 Knowledge transfer ... 46 Links to literature ... 48 First-mover advantages ... 50 Links to literature ... 52 VII. CONCLUSIONS ... 55 Conclusions ... 55 Implications ... 56 Limitations... 58 Future research ... 58 VIII. APPENDICES ... 60

Appendix I. Company Overview ... 60

Appendix II. Hyperinflation (1997) and EU accession (2007) overview ... 61

Hyperinflation (1997) in Bulgaria ... 61

Bulgaria’s accession to the EU (2007)... 65

Appendix III. Questionnaire ... 66

Appendix IV. Interviews ... 76

Appendix V. PHARE project... 77

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v

TABLE OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1. Research variables ... 15

Figure 2. Index of GDP in Bulgaria (1989=100) ... 63

Figure 3. Job destruction and creation ... 64

Figure 4. Sources of success ... 78

Figure 5. Employees working experience (in years) with BOSICO... 78

Figure 6. Opportunities realized by BOSICO during the crises of 1997 and 2007 ... 79

Figure 7. Most successful opportunities realized by BOSICO during the crises of 1997 and 2007 ... 79

Table 1. Employees working experience (in years) with BOSICO, mean figures ... 79

Table 2. Factors that enhance the management of market changes ... 79

Table 3. Actions to manage market crises ... 80

Table 4. Factors that help sensing opportunities ... 80

Table 5. Factors supporting the transfer of knowledge ... 80

Table 6. Employees access to past failures/successes ... 80

Table 7. First mover advantages ... 80

Table 8. Factors helping the development of first-mover advantages ... 81

Table 9. Spearman correlations ... 81

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KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS

Ad – Advertising

BNB - Bulgarian National Bank CPI – Consumer Price Index DC - Dynamic Capabilities EU - European Union

FMA – First-Mover Advantages FDI – Foreign Direct Investment GDP – Gross Domestic Product

ICT – Information & Communication Technologies IMF – International Monetary Fund

ISO – International Organization for Standardization IT – Information Technologies

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I. INTRODUCTION

The dynamism of the contemporary business realm shows that the winners of the day are those companies that, stemming from their dynamic capabilities, (1) have the ability to respond timely to market changes, (2) engage in quick and flexible new product development and (3) that use their management capability to coordinate and redeploy their internal and external competences (Teece and Pisano, 1994). The importance of dynamic capabilities is visible in their ability to influence how well companies operate within their economic systems (Helfat et al., 2007), and in the ability to help firms establish competitive advantage on the market (Teece and Pisano, 1994).

Driven by the economic difficulties and challenges that market changes impose on organizations, the present research explores the way dynamic capabilities help firms to survive and thrive in turbulent markets. For the purposes of this study I examine how the Bulgarian organization BOSICO (see Appendix I) in the metal articles production industry managed the hyperinflation in Bulgaria in the early 1997 and the market shaking around Bulgaria’s accession to the EU in 2007 (see Appendix II). The hyperinflation severely affected the welfare of Bulgarian business entities bringing about unemployment rate of 13.7% (11.1% in 1995), GDP annual growth of -7.0 (+2.9% in 1995) and CPI annual growth (which percentage change measures inflation (Wikipedia, 2009)) of 1082% (62% in 1995) (Dobrinsky, 2000; Roussenova, 2002). Similarly, the accession of Bulgaria to the EU posed challenges to companies to increase their productivity, technological progress and innovativeness in order to establish healthy and competitive business environment typical for the EU economies (EUbusiness, 2005).

I chose BOSICO for my project because it is an interesting research subject as it went successfully through the transition period of the early 1990s and coped with consequent economic/market crises. The exploration of the dynamic capabilities that allowed BOSICO to be successful during those two market turbulences would be of interest and value to the management of the organization and also will shed light about the dynamic theory, a theory still evolving and developing. This theory is a good fit to my research

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as it disseminates the traits and processes necessary to establish good positioning in a healthy business environment and explicates strategic considerations required to sense and seize market opportunities (Teece, 2007).

The relevance of this research is manifested in two aspects. First, the paper discusses the factors that influence the successful performance of a Bulgarian company during market turbulences, and second, its goal is to provide a better insight into the dynamic capabilities theory by examining the cause-relationship between company performance and the factors that affect it.

Based on the hereby discussed issues my study explores the following:

RQ: How can dynamic capabilities theory help us understand why BOSICO was successful during the economic crisis of 1997 and the EU accession in 2007?

 How did unique managerial decisions, rather than commonly accepted "best practices", affect the success of BOSICO during major market changes?

 How did the capability for acute sensing and seizing of opportunities during major market changes affect BOSICO’s success?

 How did the transfer of knowledge among regional managers affect BOSICO’s success during major market changes?

 How did the consistent ability to develop FMA affect the success of BOSICO during major market changes?

Contribution to Literature

As Goliath (2004) says, there are numerous studies that tried to explain how economic crises affected firms and how they survived by exploiting their resources. Among these studies could be mentioned the study of Lemmon and Lins (2003) who examine the effect of ownership structure on value during the financial crisis in Asia, Baek et al.’s (2004) study on corporate governance and firm value during the

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financial crisis in Korea. However, none of these explored how an organization can not only survive, but also prosper during such market turbulences – an issue that is tackled in my research project.

By providing an analysis of the success factors that helped BOSICO to successfully manage crises my research will (1) offer a valuable contribution to the dynamic capabilities theory, which is still evolving, and (2) will provide advice to other firms in a similar situation. Also, literature will be enriched by the examination of how an organization operating in an Eastern European economy, a region that stayed in the periphery of researches, deals with significant market turbulences by leveraging on its dynamic capabilities during two major economic shakings. This will allow examination of how dynamic capabilities developed in order to help the company survive those crises, and successfully establish its market positions and increase profitability.

II. THEORETICAL CONCEPTS

This section focuses on the theoretical background that I used in order to develop my research questions. In order to leverage the specific processes and capabilities that took place during the crises of 1997 and 2007 I used the dynamic capabilities theory. In order to explain the successful performance of BOSICO during the two crises, as part of the dynamic capabilities concept, I delve into the strategic decision-making, sensing and seizing of opportunities and knowledge transfer literature. Additionally, I review the FMA (First-Mover Advantages) theoretical framework as a source of success factors for thriving performance during the above mentioned market crises.

Since one of the core aspects of this research are the 1997 and 2007 crises in Bulgaria, I herein refer to the following definition of a crisis as seen by Kramer and Tyler (1995). A crisis represents a significant threat to survival that requires quick response. Though a crisis has the potential to undermine the survival of an entity, it could also bring about positive organizational results, such as the development of opportunities for learning and change. All of these however, depend upon the allocation, transformation

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and acquisition of resources along with the main causes that influence these actions. (Kramer and Tyler, 1995)

Likewise, my paper aims at examining the successful operation of the company during times of crises. Hence, it is important to provide a clarification of what success means for the micro world of this research. Different aspects result in success (see Figure 4 in the Appendices): creating and commercializing superior products, developing effective company systems and processes, timely reaction to market, etc. (Wiig, 2004). Here, I define success, using the definition of the owner of BOSICO saying that success is “the ability to survive and develop the business even during serious market and economic shakings by staying competitive and customer oriented.” Based on this definition I determine the success measure for BOSICO’s performance - quantity of output sold in terms of square meters. This measure is preferred over profit margins as profits could be high due to premium prices, rather than due to quantity sold.

In order to explore the allocation, transformation and acquisition of resources that Kramer and Tyler (1995) refer to above, I turn to the dynamic capabilities perspective. Dynamic capabilities represent the physical, human and organizational assets that bring about value-creating strategies (Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000). They are “the antecedent organizational and strategic routines by which firms achieve new resource configurations as markets emerge, collide, split, evolve and die” (Eisenhardt and Martin, p. 1107, 2000). These capabilities help organizations to “create, deploy, and protect” those assets that enhance the long-term organizational performance (Teece, p.1319, 2007). Indeed, dynamic capabilities could be characterized as unique processes that emerge from path-dependent histories of the particular organization (Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000). According to Teece, Pisano and Shuen (1997), path dependency affects the current position and future paths of the organization. Dynamic capabilities are most likely to be developed and maintained in entrepreneurial organizations, which have a flat organizational structure, clear vision and high autonomy (Teece, 2003). Furthermore, dynamic

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with new products and processes, and design and implement effective business models (Teece, 2007). When an organization has flexible strategies and positive attitude with respect to uncertainty it could see a very dynamic environment as a source of business opportunities instead of threats (Smart and Vertinsky, 1984).

Since my research focuses on the dynamism of the environment in which BOSICO operates it is necessary to provide a definition of what is a dynamic environment. According to Eisenhardt and Martin (2000), the pattern of effective dynamic capabilities is related to market dynamism. Based on the fact that BOSICO operates in a market that is constantly shaken by multiple political, economic and financial crises in the past 17 years of its existence (political transition period (90s); hyperinflation (1997), EU accession (2007), global financial crisis (2008)) it could be inferred that it operates in high-velocity market. In these markets “dynamic capabilities rely on rapidly creating situation-specific new knowledge” (Eisenhardt and Martin, p. 1111, 2000). Hence, managers engage in experiential actions to learn quickly and compensate for the limited existing knowledge (Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000). Here, the dynamic capabilities are iterative and rely on real-time information, intensive communication and cross-functional relationships (Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000).

Strategic decision-making

Organizations need to make viable decisions in order to function effectively (Miller et al., 1999). Effective decision-making helps in organizational success (Ray, n.d.). As noted above, the contemporary business realm is quite dynamic. That is why most decisions need to be made under conditions of risk and uncertainty (Cyert and March, 1991).

Strategic decision-making is a dynamic capability that integrates resources and provides managers with the possibility to pool their business, functional and personal expertise so that they can affect the choices that build the major strategic moves of organizations. Additionally, dynamic capabilities could

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also focus on the reconfiguration of resources such as routines for replication and brokering which allows managers to copy, transfer and recombine knowledge-based resources within the firm which are of particular importance for the decision-making process. (Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000)

While approaching my first research question how did unique managerial decisions, rather than commonly accepted "best practices", affect the success of BOSICO during major market changes I distinguish between the decisions made by BOSICO’s owner, based on his previous experience and knowledge, and the decisions based on widely applied best practices. In order to explain the “unique” decision-making at BOSICO I refer to the personal theory. As Rae and Carswell (2000) note, this theory advocates that individuals draw meanings from various learning periods experienced throughout their careers in order to make decisions. With the development of their professional paths they build sets of principles that they found effective in the completion of goals in the past (Rae and Carswell, 2000). This is supported by Cyert and March (1991) who say that firms are adaptive institutions that learn from previous experience. Though Cyert and March’s view refers to learning at the firm level, this could be transferred to the individual level, as firms comprise of individuals who, like firms, learn from their previous experience. In contrast to this concept, best practices refer to dynamic capabilities that have substantial commonalities among effective enterprises (Helfat, 2000). These commonalities, often called “best practices” represent different ways to implement some dynamic capabilities such as decision making (Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000). However, research findings show that these practices often cannot by themselves be sources of competitive advantage (Barney et al., 2001).

Managerial decisions are affected by numerous factors the most important of which is manager’s personal attributes (DirectoryM, n.d.). That is why in my research I refer to the decision-making of the BOSICO’s owner as “unique”. There are several decision-making models, such as the rational, intuitive and the predisposed ones. Herein, I refer to the intuitive decision-making model that sees managerial decisions being affected by the manager’s intuition, feelings and judgment about a situation (DirectoryM,

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managers and used to rapidly cope with emerging problems, and (2) shows how managers “maneuver through and survive” within turbulent business landscapes (Mackenzie, p.2-5, n.d.).

Perkins and Rao (1990) note that experienced managers gain expertise in decision-making. Research shows that experts have highly developed cognitive structures related to the organization of information and reiteration of rules for making use of this information that brings about effective decision-making processes and successful resolution of new issues (Perkins and Rao, 1990). Hence, experience influences the decision-making of managers. As Perkins and Rao (1990) cite Simon (1960), a distinction should be made between programmed and non-programmed decisions where the latter requires managers to make use of their experience and intuition as referred above. The research of Perkins and Rao (1990) confirms that the effects of experience are more important to non-programmed decisions.

Apart from experience, there is another factor that influences decision-making called adaptive sense-making. Adaptive sense-making in terms of (1) developing cognitive diversity; (2) making quick decisions; and (3) executing experimental actions, leads to success in dynamic environments (Bogner and Barr, 2000). According to Bogner and Barr (2000), the more cognitively diverse are the members of a decision-making team, the broader the set of separate cognitive frameworks that could improve the way the environment is seen, hence increasing the number of environmental concepts and trends sensed by the strategic decision makers. The members of this team could be outsiders, such as consultants and other experts. In dynamic environments creating cognitive complexity in senior management is a prerequisite for long-run survival (Bogner and Barr, 2000). Successful companies make intensive use of cross-functional and cross-team communication that expands the viewpoints entering into decisions (Bogner and Barr, 2000).

Successful firms in turbulent markets make decisions rapidly as compared to their less successful rivals. Speed is seen as a main criterion for successful adaptation to market complexities (Weick (1995) cited by Bogner and Barr (2000)). Turbulent market periods necessitate the usage of real time information by top managers due to the fact that it results in quicker feedback and provides for more cues, which lead

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to more effective decision-making (Bogner and Barr, 2000). As successful companies create cognitively diverse decision-making teams, come to decisions quickly and act bravely, these processes become part of the organizational routines and are reinforced (Bogner and Barr, 2000). As Bogner and Barr say, higher success is provoked by the ability to make decisions faster, not by the resources that stem from these decisions.

In their desire to stay competitive in the market and survive, companies orient themselves toward knowledge management systems, which facilitate the iterative use of existing knowledge and create new knowledge with the aim to improve decision-making (O’Leary, 1998). A type of knowledge that could bring about improvement in the quality of strategic decision making is tacit knowledge. It stands for the job related practical know-how obtained via experience (Brockmann and Anthony, 2002).

Research cited by Miller and Friesen (1983), shows that successful firms operating in such dynamic environments make decisions that mirror the environmental changes and look into the future to elaborate developmental strategies. In contrast to successful firms, the study of Miller and Friesen (1983) proposes that for unsuccessful firms turbulent environments bring about crisis oriented decision-making.

Sensing and seizing opportunities

Further, I want to examine how the capability for acute sensing and seizing of opportunities during major market changes affected BOSICO’s success. Such dynamic capabilities can be exploited in a way to “continuously create, extend, upgrade, protect and keep relevant the company’s unique asset base” (Teece, p.1319, 2007).

Additionally, dynamic capabilities consist of difficult to replicate capabilities that are used to adapt to arising customer and technology opportunities. Most importantly, they include the capacity to shape the environment in which the organization operates, to come up with new products and processes, and elaborate well functioning business models. The success of organizations depends on the tackling and

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development of opportunities as well as on the effective usage of both in-house and externally generated inventions, technology transfer, protection of intellectual property, renewal of best practice models and protection against imitation by competitors.(Teece, 2007)

The sensing of opportunities could be initiated by the creative capacities of individuals or could come from organizational processes such as R&D, for instance. In order for individuals to sense opportunities they need to have access to information (from professional (e.g. suppliers) and social contacts) as well as knowledge regarding customer needs in relation to both existing and new solutions. Based on the information gathered from external contacts individuals could make inferences with regards to the evolvement of new technologies, customer needs and market responses. That is why constant scanning of the external environment is so important. Opportunity detection is affected by the specific knowledge, innovativeness and ability to comprehend consumer decision-making process. The sensing of opportunities should be embedded in organizational processes, rather than left to the cognitive traits of employees, if the company wants to protect itself from vulnerability. (Teece, 2007)

The ability to sense opportunities lays emphasis on top management’s ability to leverage two significant aspects: (1) sense changes in the business landscape such as technology shifts, competitions, clients’ tastes, etc. and (2) seize these opportunities by reconfiguring tangible and intangible assets. Both of these abilities lie at the core of company’s capability to survive and expand. (Harreld et al., 2007)

Those opportunities that were sensed and judged viable by management have to be actually exploited by the organization. Good market opportunities have to be realized through new products, services and processes. In order opportunities to be seized, technological competences and complementary assets have to be maintained and improved. The process of opportunity realization is very important as moving ahead is often related to significant investments and that is why careful consideration to investment decisions (investing in risky vs. less risky projects) and timing of resource commitments should be given. (Teece, 2007)

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The seizing of opportunities necessitates the establishment of suitable business models that guide the selection of target markets, the structure of the value chain, the cost structure and profit potential as well as the choice of technologies and features. Company boundaries (e.g. appropriability regime, nature of complementary assets, phase of industry development) should also be selected as a way to get the business model right. Further, biases and deceptions such as excessive optimism and loss aversion have to be avoided.(Teece, 2007)

Additionally, the seizing of opportunities is successful when entrepreneurs exhibit cognitive and managerial skills that allow them to discern the conditions of the game and play it accordingly (Teece, 2003). Dynamic capabilities help organizations to establish competitive advantage that could be sustained by aligning this sustainability with capabilities to constantly detect changes on the market and exploit these changes by means of dynamic organizational realignment (Harreld et al, 2007).

Knowledge transfer

In the examination of how the transfer of knowledge among regional managers affected BOSICO’s success during major market changes I refer to Eisenhardt and Martin's (2000) statement that dynamic capabilities have the ability to integrate and reconfigure resources/competences. According to these scholars, the integration of inter-firm knowledge and the transfer of internal knowledge represent dynamic capabilities.

Knowledge transfer, as seen by Argote and Ingram (2000), stands for the process where an organizational unit is influenced by the experience of another. Though organizational knowledge transfer resides at the individual level, the knowledge transfer issue in firms transcends to include departments or divisions of the firm. This happens when group/team/unit communicates with another one regarding a practice that it found to enhance performance – e.g. a manufacturing group can learn from another one how to better assemble a product. (Argote and Ingram, 2000)

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As Argote, McEvily and Reagans (2003) say, in order for knowledge transfer to be carried out, first knowledge has to be retained as well as that the transfer of knowledge can actually bring about the creation of new knowledge.

Tacit knowledge which is embedded in organizational members is a knowledge component that firms usually acquire. Indeed, knowledge can be embedded in firm’s tools and technology as well as firm’s tasks and the respective interrelations among them. Last but not least, knowledge could be embedded in the networks established by the interaction between individuals, tools and tasks. Research shows that organizational performance is enhanced whenever tasks are assigned to individuals that are best qualified to execute them and when groups, when working together, enhance their work by gaining an insight of who knows what. Knowledge transfer takes place whenever a department or individual communicate with each other what actions were found to enhance individual/organizational performance. (Argote and Ingram, 2000)

Research shows that knowledge and best practices transfer is more likely between departments of the same firm rather than between different firms. Other studies leverage on this finding and show that knowledge can be embedded not only in firm members but also in firm’s rules, culture, routine, structure and technologies. (Argote, McEvily and Reagans, 2003)

According to Grant (1996), the integration of specialist knowledge to execute a discrete productive task is the core of organizational capabilities. Additionally, he says that the most important source of competitive advantage is not knowledge per se, rather it is the ability to integrate and transfer it. Grant (p. 378, 1996) also links knowledge and decision-making by saying that “if knowledge is to be effectively integrated, the architecture of capabilities must have some correspondence with a firm’s structure of authority, communication and decision-making”. According to Kogut and Zander (1992), firms differ because they exhibit difficulties in transferring and imitating knowledge provoked by the fact that not all the knowledge can be codified (e.g. tacit knowledge) and that knowledge varies in complexity.

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The research of Argote and Ingram (2000) found that knowledge transfer brings about competitive advantage for organizations and enhances overall company performance. The establishment of this competitive advantage is achieved through embedding knowledge transfer in the interactions of individuals, tools and tasks. The ability to transfer knowledge among organizational departments enhances firm’s performance in manufacturing companies (Argote and Ingram, 2000). In the contemporary turbulent business environment in which firms are forced to operate, knowledge management, and knowledge transfer more specifically, represent the key to success (Goh, 2002).

Similarly, research shows that knowledge transfer could bring significant benefits to companies such as reduction in operating cost structures and increase in fabrication capacity. Knowledge transfer will occur only if firm’s members and groups manifest high level of cooperative behavior by sharing and collaborating. Knowledge transfer is enhanced through encouraging cross-functional collaboration and team-work. (Goh, 2002)

Competitive advantage, as advocated by Lee and Hong (2002), is also positively affected by the combined usage of flexible and knowledgeable individuals along with advanced information technology (IT). Lee and Hong (2002) claim that IT is more and more vigorously seen as an enabler for bringing about enhancement of organizational performance. Hence, it is interesting to examine the level to which BOSICO has implemented IT in its operations and how this affected its performance during the crises.

First-mover advantages (FMA)

In order to shed light and provide some meaningful explanation of my research question how the consistent ability to develop FMA affected the success of BOSICO during major market changes I turn to the theory of first-mover advantages. First-mover or the so called market pioneer stands for a company that first enters a new market/segment (Robinson and Fornell, 1985) and represents a form of corporate entrepreneurship (Covin et al., 1999).

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According to Lieberman and Montgomery (1998) FMA provide early entrants with the potential to acquire superior resources and capabilities such as better location, technology space and customer perceptual space (e.g. establishing switching costs for customers). Moreover, Lieberman and Montgomery (1998) note that early movers could perform better than rivals via the development of a set of organizational capabilities that are of significant importance to the product or service in question.

As Nakata and Sivakumar (1997) found from their study, recognizing the opportunity to be first on the market and successfully exploiting this potential is related to the company’s internal qualities and application of resources and strategies. This is further strengthened by the findings of Kerin et al. (1992), as cited by Nakata and Sivakumar (1997), saying that being a successful pioneer is related to certain organizational factors. Such factors could be financial or non-financial, for instance superior innovation skills and marketing acumen.

The research conducted by Robinson (1988) shows that first-movers are likely to have higher quality of production along with broader product lines. Based on this research first-movers tend to develop sustainable competitive advantage that could be manifested in the development and maintenance of significant market share for multiple years. The research of Tellis and Golder (1996) claims that market pioneers exhibit several aspects that are of great significance for success, namely vision, persistence, commitment, innovation and asset leverage.

Kerin et al. (1992), as cited by Covin et al. (1999), propose that various competitive tactics that are suitable for the particular market entry need to be employed, including product line breadth and width, pricing, R&D, capacity utilization, resource commitments, etc. Indeed, different business environments require different tactics to be used (Covin et al., 1999). Turbulent environments shake the operation of companies and survival is seen as a rather noteworthy accomplishment (Covin et al., 1999).

Operation in dynamic markets could be managed through the application of aggressive, innovative, proactive and entrepreneurial tactics (Covin et al., 1999). Likewise, market breadth (geographic range of served markets) gives the possibility firms to vie for the majority of industry sales in turbulent

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environments (Covin et al., 1999). For instance, Miles and Cameron (1982), as cited by McKinley (1993), found in their research of strategic adaptations of the Big Six tobacco companies that in the event of a threat coming from the business environment efforts were put in the modification of products and patent applications in manufacturing organizations.

In contrast to these firms, those organizations that exhibit superb entrepreneurial vision and new product R&D are likely to consider market pioneering as attractive. Additionally, research shows that the increase in finance skills results in higher probability of first entry on a market, as these skills could enhance and sustain the funding for a pioneering product accompanied by market development costs. (Robinson et al., 1992)

III. METHODOLOGY

The Methodology section discusses the research approaches and methods that I use in order to gather and analyze the data for my project.

Research design

In order not to get overwhelmed with the volume of data and possible factors (Eisenhardt, 1989) that could positively affect the success of BOSICO, based on the theoretical overview from the previous section, I came up with several independent variables that combine the different factors as could be seen in Figure 1 below. This research examines the following constructs - unique managerial decisions, ability to sense and seize opportunities, knowledge transfer and consistent ability to develop first-mover advantages - as the variables influencing the successful performance of BOSICO.

Research method

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and subsequently brings about a clearer understanding of the problem at hand (Saunders et al., 2000). This approach, as noted by Saunders and his colleagues (2000), is concerned with the context in which events take place (flourishing development of BOSICO during crises) and because of that it suits a small sample of subjects (29 managers and employees in this case) as opposed to the larger sample needed for the deductive study. More specifically, I employ a case study research method.

Figure 1. Research variables

Independent variables

Case studies are used for various purposes such as theory building, theory testing and descriptions (Eisenhardt, 1989). My research represents an explanatory case-study (“how” research questions) devoted to researching the cause-effect relationship (Yin, 2003) between BOSICO’s success and the constructs from Figure 1 above.

Though case studies are deemed less rigorous, providing small grounds for scientific generalization and usually take long time to be conducted and end up with lot of information, I consider my choice of a research method a viable one because of the following: (1) bias can be encountered in any other research method; (2) case studies are aimed to expand and generalize theories, rather than bring about statistical generalizations; and (3) the case study data collection can implement different sources of evidence, as I do here, hence checking for construct validity of the research (Yin, 1994).

PERFORMANCE (success) Unique managerial decisions

Transfer of knowledge

Positively affect Capability for acute sensing and

seizing of opportunities

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To illustrate that practically, I used both questionnaires and interviews to examine how the above mentioned constructs affected the success of BOSICO during the crises of 1997 and 2007. Hence, I employed both qualitative and quantitative evidence, which will be useful in triangulating the data, as proposed by Eisenhardt (1989), and getting a better insight of the issues at hand. Moreover, as Eisenhardt (1989) notes, combining qualitative with quantitative data brings about synergistic results. For example, the quantitative data when corroborated to the qualitative findings from the interviews could reinforce findings (Eisenhardt, 1989).

As Patton (2002) notes, the advantage of quantitative research is its ability to measure the reactions of multiple numbers of respondents allowing for comparison of the data gathered. I will combine this strength with the advantages of the qualitative research, which is quite useful in gaining a better understanding of the issue that I examine and provides for openness and detail of the inquiry.

For gathering the primary data, I distributed questionnaires (see Appendix III) translated in Bulgarian to BOSICO employees. I developed a self-administered questionnaire, which means that BOSICO staff completed the questionnaires themselves (Sauders et al., 2000). The questionnaires were sent via e-mail because BOSICO personnel are located outside the borders of the Netherlands. Additionally, e-mail offers greater control over who is responding to the questionnaires, as compared to regular mail, since most people read and respond to their own e-mail at their personal computer (Sauders et al., 2000).

The questionnaire consisted of 33 questions, 12 of which were open-ended, and the rest of the questions were closed-ended, asking the respondent to rank various statements on Likert scale (from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree). The questionnaire started with 8 questions that aimed at gathering profile information regarding the respondents, the business environment in which BOSICO operates and the company itself. The main goal of the questionnaire was to gather both quantitative and qualitative information so that a more complete analysis to be carried out.

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studies) (see Appendix IV) with the owner of BOSICO and the seven regional managers of the company. These interviews were based on pre-determined and identical question sets to all interviewees (Sauders et al., 2000). I carried out the interviews on one-to-one basis with each particular respondent. The list of questions consisted of eight issues regarding each of the research constructs. The goal of these questions was to triangulate the data that I gathered from the questionnaires and to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the issues at hand.

Additionally, in order to better explore the success factors that brought about the thriving operation of BOSICO during the two crises, I examined secondary data of the company such as financial reports, production reports, market reports and PHARE project (see Appendix V) in which BOSICO participated.

Sample

The population subject to my research is the staff of BOSICO. Since this is a case-study research aimed at gaining better understanding of BOSICO’s success factors the questionnaires were distributed to all employees BOSICO who as of 2009 year are 41. Out of these 41 employees, 29 filled in and sent back the questionnaire, which results in 70.7% response rate. The profile of the respondents is more precisely reviewed in the Findings section that follows. With regards to the interviews I approached all seven regional managers of the company along with the owner of the firm in order to gain a more viable understanding of the issue at hand. BOSICO managers are in charge of the company’s operations on a day-to-day basis and possess the necessary knowledge and expertise to provide me with reliable information based on which to leverage my analysis and draw conclusions regarding the issue at hand.

Data analysis

In order to analyze the Likert scale statements from the questionnaire I input all results in SPSS and carried out descriptive and frequency statistics. Based on these results I drew certain conclusions that I

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provide in the following section of the paper. Additionally, I ran Spearman’s test in order to check possible correlations between the variables and look for relations that I could not have envisioned prior to conducting the study. The Spearman’s correlation test is used for non-parametric data (StatsGuide, n.d.). It is also used when one or both variables are not assumed to be normally distributed (Academic Technology Services, n.d.). The values of all my variables are ranked and correlated. Spearman’s test explores the strength and direction of the relationship between variables (Pallant, 2007). As Pallant (2007) notes, a positive correlation means that as one variable increases, the other increases as well. The opposite applies for negative correlations.

Different authors propose different interpretations of the strength of the relationship between variables but for this study I follow the suggestion of Cohen (1988),as cited by Pallant (2007), where r=.10 to .29 is small; r=.30 to .49 is medium; and r=.50 to 1.0 is large. Additionally, I also review the significance level which shows how much confidence I should have in the results from the test (Pallant, 2007). However, as Pallant (2007) notes, the focus should be on the strength of the relationship, as discussed above.

Apart from the analysis of quantitative data my research also analyzes qualitative data from the interviews and open-ended questions in the questionnaire. The analysis of the qualitative data from the questionnaire is conducted by categorizing respondents’ answers in the following categories: competitiveness and efficiency, business activities (marketing, production, HRM), communication (meetings, discussions, reports) and “others”, which includes issues proposed by respondents that do not fit into any of these categories. With respect to the interviews I went through the transcripts several times and categorized the data into the following categories: processes (decision-making, work with(out) instructions), affect (the consequences of certain actions/processes/factors), preconditions (factors that bring about opportunity realization and first-mover advantages) and “others” (any other topic not fitting the former three categories).

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These categories emerged as I went over the scripts of the interviews and the answers to the open-ended questions from the questionnaire and disaggregated the data into meaningful and related parts (Sauders et al., 2000). Each of the qualitative research categories is attributed to the independent variable as follows.

Unique decision making is a variable that encompasses the decision-making processes that take place at the company during crises periods. The examination of this variable is supported by the findings analyzed under (1) the business activities category, which discusses the participation of management in the decision-making with respect to the sensing and seizing of opportunities, and provides examples for successfully realized opportunities and first-mover advantages; (2) the processes category, which denotes the decision-making process at the firm; and (3) the affect category, which findings discuss the affect of the decision-making process on the performance of BOSICO.

Knowledge transfer is a variable that encompasses the means of knowledge and expertise transfer such as inter-departmental meetings, written reports and instructions. The examination of this variable is supported by the findings analyzed under (1) the competitiveness and efficiency category that discusses the aspects through which knowledge transfer improves the performance; (2) the communication category, which relates to the communication modes that takes place within the company; (3) the processes category, which findings reveal the transfer of knowledge that takes place at the firm; and (4) the affect category, which results present the influence of the knowledge transfer process on the performance of the firm.

Capability for sensing and seizing of opportunities is a variable that encompasses the ability of the organization to tackle and exploit opportunities that arise within the external environment. The examination of this variable is supported by the findings analyzed under (1) the business activities category as discussed above; (2) the preconditions category, which findings discuss the factors that enhance the sensing and seizing of opportunities; and (3) the affect category, which results present the influence of the sensing and seizing of opportunities capability on the performance of the firm.

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Consistent ability to develop first-mover advantages is a variable that encompasses the factors that help the company make moves on the market prior to its rivals. The examination of this variable is supported by the findings analyzed under (1) the business activities category as discussed above; (2) the preconditions category, which findings discuss the factors that enhance the development of first-mover advantages; and (3) competitiveness and efficiency category as discussed above.

To check the consistency of these categories I asked a second independent reviewer to go over the respondents’ answers and code them using the categories that I developed. The inter-rater agreement, as assessed by Kappa test, proved the consistency of the categorization => 0.93 for the questionnaire and 0.81 for the interviews. Though the data of the case study research cannot provide any statistical value or “scientific” feel (Sauders et al., 2000), the data gathered are a worthwhile way of exploring existing dynamic capabilities theory and suits well the case study approach that I employed here.

IV. FINDINGS

The questionnaire was sent to all employees of the organization. The total number of respondents is 29, bringing about a 70.7% response rate, as mentioned above. Participation in the questionnaire was taken primarily by employees on manager’s positions such as regional managers (7 respondents), followed by the head of the innovation department and its senior staff (7 respondents), office coordinators (5 respondents), sales managers (3 respondents) and other employees from the finance and distribution departments, an internal consultant (who has good knowledge of the processes that take place at the company) and specialized workers.

Since my research explores the successful operation of BOSICO during the crises of 1997 and 2007 it was important the respondents to the questionnaire to have worked for the company covering the years 1997-2007 in order to be able to provide reliable and accurate answers. The analysis of the questionnaires shows that the mean years of work for BOSICO among respondents is 7.9 years with 17 and 2.1 years

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representing the longest and shortest time any respondent has been with the company (see Figure 5; Table 1 in the Appendices).

As figures show, it could be expected that, based on their experience and long standing with the company, those respondents provided valuable and accurate information that will allow me to draw reliable conclusions with respect to the links of success to the independent variables that I herein research.

In order to examine the environment in which BOSICO makes business it was interesting to get a feeling of the competitiveness of the business landscape. There is unanimity among respondents that the metal articles industry is quite competitive (100%). There is also common agreement that the greatest competition is represented by Bulgarian companies (96.5%), with quite an intense rivalry of Bulgarian firms that are representatives of foreign organizations and traders (93.1%), and least competition stemming from foreign companies operating on the Bulgarian market (41.4%).

Quantitative Analysis

In this section I present the results from the quantitative questions in the questionnaire.

Unique Managerial Decisions

Since my proposition was that the company’s success is affected by unique managerial decisions rather than widely accepted “best practices” I wanted to check the reliability of this construct as per employee’s perceptions. As seen in Table 2 in the Appendices this proposition is supported by 100% of the respondents who consider the ability to make decisions that reflect market/industry changes as most important, compared to 17% of the respondents who consider the copying of rivals’ actions as an important factor in improving crisis handling.

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Interestingly, as could be seen from Table 3 in the Appendices, the uniqueness of the managerial decisions applies to not only cost reduction activities during crises, as commonly performed by business entities. It also combines these actions with business expansion to new locations and development of new products and services that mirror the newly arising needs and requirements of customers during turbulent market periods.

Among these actions, results show that of greatest importance are the development of new products (93.1% of respondents) and cost reduction (93.1% of respondents) followed by business expansion (79.3% of respondents).

The factors that seem to be most significantly affecting the managerial decisions made at BOSICO are the experience of the management team (96.6%) as well as the knowledge transfer (93.1%), with medium agreement on the affect of practices widely adopted by firms in the industry (51.7%). The proposition of the uniqueness of the managerial decisions is supported by the modest agreement (13.8%) among respondents with the fact that managerial decisions are influenced by the use of common sense rules for coping with crises as well as relations with external parties such as consultants (34.4%). Of these factors the most important ones are the experience of the management team (100%) and knowledge transfer (55.1%). These factors help BOSICO to establish routines so that various company departments collaborate with each other (89.7%) as well as create synergistic combinations of resources among business activities (82.8%).

It appears that both during crises and market stability, decisions are taken by the owner of the company with consultants’ interaction being a bit higher during crises (44.8%) as compared to market stability (27.5%).

Sensing and Seizing Opportunities

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opportunities is primarily enhanced by market scanning and examination of customer needs (93.1%) and R&D activity (93.1%), followed by leveraging new knowledge (68.9%) and relationships with suppliers (31%). The development of the industry in other countries (13.8%) seems to be of least importance in sensing opportunities in the business environment.

As could be expected for a medium sized company, the sensing of opportunities is initiated mainly by managers (93.1%). There were numerous propositions by respondents that the main role in finding opportunities is played by the owner of BOSICO himself. It seems that regular staff in the company has a modest contribution to the sensing of opportunities.

There are indeed several factors that help in seizing opportunities, as could be seen from Table 4 in the Appendices, with the most significant being the experience on the market of nearly 17 years (100%) and the financial standing of the firm (89.7%).

Results show that among those factors of utmost significance to the realization of the opportunities are the experience of the management (93.1%) and the financial standing (89.7%) of the company as well as innovation (51.7%). The business model that is implemented by the company and the exact moment of entry seems to be of modest importance for the realization of opportunities as seen by BOSICO respondents.

Few factors are recognized by respondents as enhancing the process of opportunity realization. The highest level of agreement is with respect to the usage of both past and new resources (93.1%). The change of the organizational structure seems to play a not so important role in helping opportunity realization (34.5%).

Knowledge Transfer

Another construct that I proposed as relevant in influencing the successful performance of the company during market crises is the transfer of knowledge. Results show that when key personnel leave

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the company no consequences will be experienced by the firm because knowledge and expertise are embedded in the firm (72.4%).

The transfer of knowledge is executed mostly by regular meetings of the departments during which things that went bad in the overall execution of tasks are discussed (96.6%), written reports of successes and failures on regional level (75.8%), and ICT usage (82.7%). There are few additional factors that support the knowledge transfer as could be seen from Table 5 in the Appendices.

Though there is some level of knowledge transfer in the company, as recognized by BOSICO employees, it seems that employees do not have access to past failures and success stories of the firm (see Table 6 in the Appendices). This stems from the fact that the written reports consisting of the success and failure stories are written by each regional manager with respect to the regional operations of the firm, are not distributed to other offices and are not included in a common database to which anyone can have access to.

Despite this fact, there is a common agreement among respondents that the knowledge transfer enhances BOSICO operations by learning from success and failure stories (96.6%). Results also show that this increases the innovativeness of the company (100%) and hence improves its operations and competitiveness on the market. There is less agreement with the fact that knowledge transfer enhances BOSICO’s operations by reducing operating cost structures (44.8%).

First-Mover Advantages

Another construct that I found interesting to examine as affecting the success of BOSICO during crises is the ability to create advantages before rivals. There seem to be some first-mover advantages that the company realized well as per the agreement of all respondents, such as expansion to strategic locations (96.6%) and assigning more qualified employees (72.4%) (see Table 7 in the Appendices).

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towards the market and the needs and requirements of its current and potential customers (86.2%) (see Table 8 in the Appendices).

The development of the above mentioned factors is in turn supported by market intelligence activity (66.6%) and multi-year experience on the market (66.6%). The support of external consultants during market crises in the development of these factors is not deemed significant (20.6%).

Spearman’s Correlations

Interestingly, the Spearman’s test reveals few correlations between constructs that show support for the uniqueness of the managerial decisions and the success of BOSICO during crises (see Table 9 in the Appendices). For instance, it seems that there is a large positive correlation (rho=.533, n=29, p<.01) between the development of new products and services and the ability to make decisions that reflect different market/industry changes. The development of new products and services has a medium positive correlation with cost reduction (rho=.331, n=29, p<.05) and the expansion of the business to new strategic locations (rho=.343, n=29, p<.05). Also, marketing old products and services in a different way exhibits a medium positive correlation with the expansion of the business to new strategic locations (rho=.351, n=29, p<.05).

There was a medium positive correlation between the expansion of the business to new strategic locations and the employment of high quality personnel (rho=.337, n=29, p<.05) with more openings of businesses in new locations associated with higher employment of expert personnel (see Table 10 in the Appendices).

It appears that there is a medium negative correlation between the ability to make decisions that reflect different market/industry changes and relations with external parties influencing managerial decisions during crises (rho=-.444, n=29, p<.01) (see Table 11 in the Appendices).

Additionally, there was a large negative correlation between the relationship with suppliers in finding new opportunities and the leverage of knowledge in sensing opportunities (rho=-.602, n=29, p<.01).

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There was also a medium negative correlation between the leverage of knowledge in sensing opportunities and market scanning and customer needs examination in finding new opportunities (rho=-.425, n=29, p<.05). There was a medium positive correlation between R&D activity in finding new opportunities and market scanning and customer needs examination in finding new opportunities (rho=.338, n=29, p<.05). (see Table 12 in the Appendices)

Qualitative Analysis

The re-reading and iterative examination of the open-ended questions from the questionnaires brought about the evolvement of four categories as discussed in the Methodology section. The present section presents the qualitative results from the questionnaire and on certain occasion uses quotes from respondents’ answers.

Competitiveness and efficiency

There is a unanimous agreement with the fact that the dynamic environment in which BOSICO operates is affected by the number of competitors on the market, changing customers’ needs and preferences as well as the macro-economic factors that affect the industry and the overall business landscape.

The overview of the results shows that knowledge transfer is an essential tool for the performance of BOSICO during the two crises as it leads to synergies and exchange of ideas and knowledge among department managers. As seen in respondents’ answers, knowledge transfer increases the effectiveness and prosperity of the firm; helps in quick and optimal decision making in compliance with the circumstances; and synthesizes the maximal potential of the team.

Other propositions show that knowledge transfer optimizes the company activities; opens new possibilities for development that competitors haven’t caught yet; increases the quality of the production

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and services; makes the company more competitive; and brings about qualitative execution of orders, which increases customer satisfaction and brings new clients to the company. One of the Engineers in the company proposes that “Knowledge transfer leads to more effective, innovative and successful work of the team.” Another respondents’ opinions are that “knowledge transfer helps in avoiding past mistakes” and is seen as a main tool to “manage crises”.

As mentioned above from the quantitative results section, the development of first-mover advantages is supported mainly by the skills possessed by BOSICO in new product development and the proactive attitude that it exhibits towards the market and the needs and requirements of its customers. In support of that, the qualitative data shows that these factors could be developed at other than crisis times as well, because inertia is not allowed in the company. Hence, all of these factors are being developed consistently every moment as this leads to higher competitiveness and better response to customers’ needs.

Business activities

The results from the qualitative questions in the questionnaire show that according to BOSICO employees the crises of 1997 and 2007 provided the organization with multiple opportunities for the development of various products and the elaboration of business expansion strategies. The participation of managers and employees in the decision-making regarding the sensing of new opportunities is related to the production activities of the company. All of the respondents that participated in such decisions contributed by finding a different opportunity, for instance import of metal articles from China, effective complementing of systems for management of doors that are a foreign production with BOSICO blocks, the purchase of a plant in Veliko Tarnovo (city at the center of the country), the introduction of systems for access control, the development of photo-curtains ZIS-3 and ZIS-5, manual parking barriers, glass door “Jet”, introduction of sectional garage doors with vertical sections TRIDO; development of company and painted ad clocks, advertising in free city newspapers and guides, and rolling shutters with advertising and security function.

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With respect to the realization of the sensed opportunities the respondents contributed to the decision-making related to the development and commercialization of door automatics, photo-curtains, photocells, rolling shutters, advertising and painted clocks, new types of transparent rolling shutters, radio managed code door lock combined with alarm system, systems for access control and client search, installation of a new machine for sticking metal articles, rolling shutters for pools, execution of contacts with companies developing transparent rolling shutters.

Among the opportunities that were most often cited by respondents as realized during the two crises (see Figure 6 in the Appendices) are the introduction of rolling shutters with advertising and security function for shops and shop windows (38% of respondents); the development and sale of photocells and photo-curtains (38% and 34% of respondents) (there is only one other producer on the Bulgarian market, which is a state organization - the Higher Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering); the opening of new offices and showrooms throughout the country (28% of respondents) so that the number of potential customers and ease of service are increased; the production and sale of garage doors (17% of respondents) as well as remote controls for doors (17% of respondents).

Results show that among these, the most successful opportunities that were realized on the market are the rolling shutters with advertising and security function (37.9% of respondents), photocells (37.9% of respondents) and photo-curtains (34.5% of respondents) (see Figure 7 in the Appendices).

The proposition of new ideas on behalf of BOSICO employees is again closely related to the business activities of the company. For instance, ideas were given for the import of cheap and satisfactory quality metal articles from China, the expansion of the product portfolio via the import of new type of fences from the Dutch producer Merkensteijn, the production and commercialization of aluminum window frames, the introduction of new technique for sticking metal articles, and online ordering by clients via the company website. All of these propositions were considered by the company and most of them are already operationalized by BOSICO on the market with the exception of the online ordering system that

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is currently being worked on and the production and sale of aluminum window frames that will be eventually introduced to the market by the end of the year.

Respondents to the questionnaire noted that during major market shakings more opportunities arise for the creation of first-mover advantages such as superior positions in geographic space, customer perceptual space, etc. To support that statement they provided the following examples of first-mover advantages that BOSICO has realized: offices in the center of Bulgaria (Veliko Tarnovo); the assignment of new experts in sales and R&D; the purchase of a plant; marketing of rolling shutters for pools and shops with security and ad function; showroom and workshops in Veliko Tarnovo; opening of offices in 7 cities throughout the country; the participation and won of PHARE project for increasing company competitiveness in compliance with EU standards; the development of matrices for various metal articles; growing number of new and old customers and expansion of the product range. This could be compared to the realization of opportunities during market stability such as the production of light commercials (with colourful lamps) for shop windows and the production of portative and mobile radio-stations.

Communication

There is unanimous agreement among respondents that whenever something goes wrong with the execution of tasks, production and/or other issues they approach either directly the owner of the company or their supervisor. It appears that communications among departments in terms of discussions, meetings, team work enhances the transfer of knowledge among different individuals. It is these regular meetings among managers of departments and reports that actually ensure that proper knowledge is available to the people that make decisions.

Others

The issues that were proposed by the respondents and not fitting any of the above categories fall beneath the “Others” category. For instance, there were propositions for measures that could enhance the

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knowledge transfer such as usage of a contemporary ICT (Information & Communication Technology), concrete instructions for the implementation of specific tasks, motivation of personnel to share their problems and solve them together as a group, job rotations, more team-work, increased number of inter-departmental meetings and discussions.

Also, under this category I attach the answers of the respondents regarding the factors that influence the decision-making, opportunity sensing and seizing, knowledge transfer and development of first-mover advantages. For instance, respondents point to the offices spread throughout the country, the large portfolio of clients and experience gained though the years of operation on the market as qualities of BOSICO that allow it to perform better than rivals, who do not have such a large coverage of the market. Further, it appears that the process of opportunity sensing is enhanced by (1) the role of managers; and (2) the clients of the company via discussions of their needs and possible new product introductions. On an important note, during the crisis of 2007 the opportunity sensing and seizing of the organization was enhanced by its participation in the PHARE projects aimed at increasing the competitiveness of organizations operating on the Bulgarian market.

Interviews

The results of the interviews are presented following the categorization discussed in the Methodology section. The presentation of the qualitative results from the interviews on certain occasion uses quotes from interviewees’ answers.

Processes

The interviews revealed that the decision-making process exhibits a top down approach where the owner makes the call regarding strategic and other major decisions and subsequently assigns tasks and spreads rules down the hierarchy. Regional managers have the authority to make decisions regarding the

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operation of their regional offices with respect to issues such as “pricing and product characteristics”. This process is seen by interviewees as being the same both during crises and market stability. However, decisions during crises periods are made more quickly “in order to respond quickly and adequately to the changes in the market and customer needs”.

Another process related to the performance of the company is learning from previous successes and failures of the firm. Though there is no readily available database that houses the success and failure stories of all regional offices together, managers review their regular regional reports. To learn from failures and avoid past mistakes they refer to the ISO documentation that accommodates for failure stories of each regional office separately.

Affect

The affect of the decision-making process on company performance is judged by interviewees as positive because quick and effective decisions lead to fast accommodation to the changing economic, market and customer patterns. As a result the firm could make moves prior to its rivals by “offering a new service such as the insurance, or the development of new product such as the rolling shutter with ad and security function”. The positive affect of the decision-making on the performance of BOSICO is very well illustrated by one of the interviewees noting that in 1997 the firm succeeded to develop successfully and prevented itself from eventual losses caused by the hyperinflation by attaching all product/service prices to the USD, which was a stable currency during that time. Similarly, during the crisis of 2007 the company went ahead of its competitors by participating in and winning a PHARE project, which granted BOSICO a subsidy for the “purchase of expensive and rare in the country machines that improved the quality of the manufacturing processes: roll-forming machine, bending machine and a ventilation chamber for powder polymeric coating of metals.”Another positive affect of the centralized and quick decision-making process on company performance is that is helps BOSICO to “accommodate for all changes before competitors, which is a main tool for coping with crises.”

Achieving success during crises : the case of BOSICO PI Ltd