Defensive and Expansion Responses to Environmental Shocks in China: Interpreting the 2008 Economic Crisis

摘要

We tested organizational actions as a result of interpreting the 2008 crisis with a sample of 80 firms in mainland China collected in 2009. Our findings indicate that threat and urgency interpretations positively affect defensive responses, while controllability and feasibility interpretations positively affect expansion responses. Moreover, we find that strategic flexibility and risk-taking orientation moderate the relationships between controllability/feasibility interpretations and expansion responses.