Corporate Resilience
The pandemic crisis is an example of significant systemic risk, threatening the survival
of firms at a global scale, with potentially devastating societal and economic outcomes.
The pandemic has caused significant job losses, corporate bankruptcies and firm failure.
The crisis raises fundamental questions: How can firms respond to systemic crises such
as the current pandemic spread of the coronavirus COVID-19? What type of firms or
organisational forms are likely to withstand pandemic shocks? How may a firm’s
capital structure and debt structure affect its chance of survival and failure? How may
the pandemic affect the organisation of the market post-Coronavirus? Which strategies
might increase corporate resilience and enable firms to better sail through pandemic
crises?
Your assignment will require you to reflect on some of these questions. You will need
to:
1. Using a simple theoretical framework from economics, explore how systemic
shocks such the Covid-19 pandemic may affect the economy and the firm.
2. Explore in detail factors that contribute to a firm’s resilience and capability to
withstand pandemic shocks;
3. Explain how firms can respond to systemic crises such as the current pandemic
spread of the coronavirus COVID-19.
4. Which corporate strategies enable corporations to recover from the adverse
effects of pandemic shocks more effectively?
You may draw on the lecture materials posted on Blackboard to develop the first part
of the essay. Additional instructions will be provided on Blackboard.
Important: You must draw on relevant economic / management / strategy concepts,
graphs and theories to provide a systematic analysis. Failure to draw on relevant
theories, concepts and graphs can well lead to a very low mark. It is equally important
to inform your analysis by referring to relevant data. Use of pee-reviewed academic
journals is essential too.
A number of notes will be placed on the course webpage to guide you through your
research and help you with the emerging literature on corporate resilience. A note will
specify marking guidelines in details.
