Adaptive Strategies in Response to the Economic Crisis: A Cross-Cultural Study in Austria and Slovenia

Abstract

This study builds on prior research on culture-specific differences in strategic decision-making and strategic issue analysis, and extends it to the field of strategic crisis adaptation. Taking an upper echelons perspective, it is investigated whether the cultural dimension of uncertainty avoidance had an effect on strategic directions that managers chose in response to the 2008–2009 global financial and economic crisis. Building on a framework of strategic crisis responses and a quantitative survey conducted among 257 managers in Austria and Slovenia, the findings suggest that strategic issue interpretations of the economic crisis as well as country differences influence whether firms are using externally versus internally-directed strategic responses, and pro-active versus retrenchment strategies. The differences in strategy deployment between the two countries, however, could not be consistently traced to differences in the cultural dimension of uncertainty avoidance, thus suggesting that other country-specific factors like institutional or social differences also play an important role.