Strategic responses to crisis

• Date: 01 February 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3161
• Published date: 01 February 2021

Received: 20 March 2020

Revised: 26 March 2020

Accepted: 31 March 2020

Published on: 02 April 2020

DOI: 10.1002/smj.3161

VIRTUAL SPECIAL ISSUE

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Strat Mgmt J. 2020;41:V7±V18

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/smj

V7

Strategic responses to crisis

Matthias Wenzel1 | Sarah Stanske1 | Marvin B. Lieberman2

1Institute of Management and Organization, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Germany

2Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles, California

Correspondence

Matthias Wenzel, Institute of Management

and Organization, Leuphana University of

Lüneburg, Germany.

Email: matthias.wenzel@leuphana.de

Abstract

Research summary: The pandemic spread of the

coronavirus COVID-19 is rightly focusing policy-

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time, the pandemic crisis is threatening the survival of

firms at a global scale, with potentially devastating

societal and economic outcomes. In this Virtual Special

Issue, we gather and discuss key papers published in the

journals of the Strategic Management Society that

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to crisis. Based on our overview, we identify four types

of responses: retrenchment, persevering, innovating, and

exit. Awareness of these responses has implications for

managers and strategy scholars alike.

Managerial summary: How can firms respond to crises

such as the current pandemic spread of the coronavirus

COVID-19? This Virtual Special Issue begins to provide

answers to this question. Based on a select overview of

papers published in the journals of the Strategic

Management Society, we advance four types of strategic

responses to crisis: retrenchment, persevering,

innovating, and exit. Awareness of these responses has

implications for managers and strategy scholars alike.

KEYWORDS

COVID-19, crisis, strategic responses

Accepte

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This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been

through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process which may lead to

differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi:

10.1002/smj.3161

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