The Effect of Competitive Strategies on Crisis Management Skills

Abstract

Purpose – The aim of this study is to determine the effect of the competitive strategies (cost leadership, differentiation and focus) applied by the enterprises on the management skills in the pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis periods. Design/methodology/approach – The sample group of this quantitative research method are the partners, senior managers and owners of the enterprises operating in different sectors in Denizli. The data of the research were obtained by questionnaire from 255 enterprises in which only one person from each enterprise (owner/partner/top-middle manager) participated. Correlation and regression analysis were performed on the collected data. According to the research model, competitive strategies were analyzed as independent variable and crisis management skills as dependent variable. Findings – As a result of the analysis, carried out to test the hypotheses of the study, the interaction between the dependent and independent variables was examined. In the research, it was determined that there was a positive and moderately significant relationship and interaction between cost leadership and differentiation strategies and crisis management skills, while the relationship between focus strategy and crisis management skills was not significant. Discussion – In the study, it was observed that the competitive strategies most applied respectively by the enterprises in crisis management were differentiation and cost leadership strategies. The impact of the differentiation strategy is greater than the cost leadership strategy on crisis management skills in all three periods (pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis) of the crisis management process. Differentiation strategy has the highest impact on post-crisis management skills, while the cost leadership strategy has the highest impact on crisis management skills during the crisis period. It has been determined that the findings obtained as a result of the analysis carried out for the hypotheses of the study support the relevant literature. In addition, new contributions have been made to the literature since the studies, which had previously examined these variables together, are quite limited.