Assessing the actions taken in a post
disaster environment for financial gain
in a construction company
A case study of Newtech Installations 1992-2020
BACHELOR THESIS WITHIN: Business Administration
NUMBER OF CREDITS: 15 PROGRAMME OF STUDY: International Management
AUTHOR: Ida Antonsson, Julien Champigny JÖNKÖPING 2020/05/18
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Bachelor Thesis Project in Business Administration
Management
Title: Assessing the actions taken in a post disaster environment for financial gain in a construction company: A case study of Newtech Installations 1992-2020
Authors: Ida Antonsson and Julien Champigny Tutor: Mr. Ziad El Awad
Date: 2020-05-18
Key terms: Natural disaster, entrepreneurship, Post-disaster market, entrepreneurial action, windows of opportunities
3 Acknowledgments:
We would like to thank Mr. Anders Melander our supervisor to give us the opportunity to create and learn by doing this research even via the Covid-19 world crisis. Special thanks to our tutor Mr. Ziad El Awad for being an helpfull guide and answer our questions when we were in need and being able to accommodate us with our restrictions from our separate homes from accross the globe.
We would like to thank Newtech Installations for being able to help us with the interviews and giving us the data to do this research, even during an international crisis.
We would like to thank Eric Svensson, Petter Broberg and Adam Törnqvist for their help during the seminars to give us input for our thesis and gave us ideas to make it better.
We would like to thank Jord Geerts for being the person who reviewed our thesis late at night during the weekends to give us an outsider review and pointers to ameliorate our work.
Abstract:
With globalisation and global warming threats, natural disasters happen at a faster rate, and their impact is drastically more prominent than before. In this thesis, we investigate the actions the organisation Newtech performed in three post-natural disaster environments to enter the markets and benefit from them. By analysing the key actions an organisation can take in order to be more likely to benefit in a post-natural disaster market, the intention is to make more ventures aware of this tappable market and how to profit from entering it. This research uses a one case study to investigate the nuanced perspective of a venture that has, on multiple occasions, entered post-natural disaster markets and what key actions performed. From evaluating pre-existing literature and patterns spotted in the empirical data collected through interviews with the organisation, there appeared five key actions for non-local ventures that strive to enter a post-natural disaster market. The actions discovered by this thesis are (1) spot the opportunity, (2) investigate the environment of the market pre-arrival, (3) prepare based on the investigation, (4) continuously observe the market, (5) make
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Contents
Acknowledgments: ... 3 1. Introduction ... 6 2. Literature Review ... 8 2.1 Dominant Debates ... 8 2.2 Natural Disasters ... 10 2.3. Business environment ... 11 2.3. Opportunity ... 12 2.4. Entrepreneurial Actions ... 13 2.5. Disaster Capitalism ... 13 2.6. Gap in literature ... 143. Methodology & Method... 16
3.1. Methodology ... 16 3.1.1 Research Philosophy ... 16 3.1.2. Research Design ... 16 3.1.3 Research Approach ... 17 3.1.4. Research Strategy ... 18 3.2. Method ... 18 3.2.1 Sample Selection ... 18 3.2.2. Data Collection ... 19 3.2.2.1 Newtech Inc. ... 19 3.2.2.2. Participants ... 19 3.2.2.3 Questions... 20 3.2.2.4. Limitations ... 21 3.2.3 Interview Process ... 21 3.2.4. Data Analysis ... 22
4. Ethics & Trustworthiness ... 23
5. Findings... 25
5.1. Newtech Inc. ... 25
5.1.1. North American Ice Storm of 1998 ... 25
5.1.2. Earthquake in Haiti 2010 ... 26
5.1.3. Fort McMurray Horse River Wildfire 2016 ... 27
6. Analysis & Discussion ... 28
7. Conclusion ... 31
8. References ... 32
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1. Introduction
Within the first few weeks of 2020, Australia faced devastating bush fires across the country from Aaron Bunch (2020), a natural disaster grimmer than anything Australians had seen in years. The lands covered in ash were now looked upon as something that used to hold money (Lucas, Eriksen, Bowman, 2020). With the right actions, the land is likely to become fertile once again. “What often comes after wildfires is nutritious soil” Magnus Nilsson, (2005) which creates opportunities for plantations of various kinds in places that before were drained of neutrinos necessary for specific crops. For agricultural organisations to recognise this possible opportunity and buying land that others would consider destroyed, a profit can be made if performing the right actions (Nilsson, 2005).
Multiple pieces of research have been performed up to this day investigating the
macroeconomic perspectives concerning the aftermath in a community hit by a disaster and the impact it has on households versus the industry (Birkmann et al., 2008; Allenby, 2005; Chamlee-Wright, Storr, 2015; Linnenluecke, McKnight, 2015). Studies have also pursued a theoretical and non-empirical approach to understand entrepreneurship in post-disaster markets which have generated results which has lesser evidence in the real world (Monllor, Murphy, 2017). Current literature covers how local entrepreneurs and ventures act and how they find potential opportunities, these studies are commonly closely related to one disaster, and not various events in different regions (Aldrich, 2017; Joakim, Wismerå, 2013; Monllor, Murphy, 2017; Storr et al., 2015; William, Shepherd, 2016). From this deep dive in the literature (see the table in Section 2.3), we intend to investigate the acknowledged gap in the current literature. We identify the current gap in the literature as a lack of portraying non-local firms in natural disaster struck markets. We chose to investigate it by making a single case study telling the story of one venture from empirical data gathered qualitatively through interviews. Our research question was: What key actions should a non-local venture take in order to benefit financially in a post-natural disaster environment?
According to Daniel Aldrich (Aldrich, 2018), entrepreneurial actions in a post-disaster environment is one of the main factors why individuals move back to disaster-struck regions to rebuild their lives. For a disaster-struck region to recover and develop, entrepreneurial actions are needed and desired either from entrepreneurs themselves or already established businesses entering a new market.
7 Our contribution in this study is to create a deeper understanding of what actions and
activities a firm may pursue to create financial gains in an environment that is of higher risk. The post-disaster market has increased risk due to the nature of post-disaster markets, bringing more turmoil than non-disaster struck markets. The example of the Canadian
company Newtech Installation is used in this study to analyse activities and mechanisms they have pursued in a post-natural disaster environment. Newtech has a history of entering multiple post-natural disaster environments and ended up benefiting from it. We intend to contribute to how firms successfully, by example, can put their assets in a seemingly
unfruitful environment and gain from it. The reason why we study the non-local firms are that they keep entering these markets, but there is a lack of research on it. We do not write about local firms since there is much material about them already published.
Numbers prove that the change in climate since the 1950s has caused an increasing number of extreme weather and natural disasters says Banholzer, Kossin, Donner (Banholzer,et al., 2014). The focus of this thesis will lie in how organisations operate in these types of
environments, extreme weather and natural disasters create. When a natural disaster strikes, there is a shock and a disruption in the actual economy of the affected market. With time, the economy tends to change and adapt to a new reality which most of the time comes with a new ecosystem, and this leads to new opportunities for the existing companies to create new subsidiaries or new products to cater to the new audience the natural disaster created. What follows this introduction is a literature review presenting the critical elements in this thesis; definition and explanation of natural disasters, the business environment that follows post-disaster struck markets, as well as definition and explanation of window of opportunity. The concept of disaster capitalism inferred by Naomi Klein (Klein, 2007) also plays a role in the mechanism for ventures in the post-disaster market.
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2. Literature Review
2.1 Dominant Debates
There is a desire for more research in the field of how a post-disaster market operates, what important forces are active, and how these forces act due to climate change making natural disasters and extreme weather more frequent (Aldrich, 2017). Thereby increasing the relevance for organisations to seek opportunities in environments affected by these kinds of forces. Currently, most studies conducted are from a macroeconomic perspective and focused on entrepreneurs starting a business to fill the gap that destruction has caused. There are also plenty of studies depicting the role of governments in policymaking and political bonds being tied or cut off said Mark Schuller and Julie K. Maldonado (Shuller, 2016). Governments tend to create programmes to give a spark in the economy to build back the economy in the form of aid to organisations which makes them able to decrease unemployment and build back the community (Shuller, 2016).
In a post-disaster environment, established forms, routines and policies of the pre-disaster form of economic governance changes or even disappear says Andre Broome (Broome, 2011). These changes have, therefore caused a focus in research on the restructuring of state-operated organs. At the same time, opportunities and actions of organisations that are not intertwined with the government are less common. The pieces of research that do bring up and analyse entrepreneurship in a post-disaster environment bring it up as a tool for
communities to bounce back says Martina Linneluecke and Brent McKnight (Linneluecke & McKnight, 2015) thereby explaining entrepreneurial actions less in dept and as more of a static phenomenon. How entrepreneurial actions and activities enriches communities and help them to get back on their feet have also been discussed prior to this study (Allenby, 2005). A few studies have been written has investigated novel local entrepreneurs, inspired by the opportunities surfacing post-disaster (Aldrich, 2018; William & Shepherd, 2016). The local inhabitants are situated in an environment deceptively similar to one they once knew, paired with desperation and a great need; they become entrepreneurs themselves to create supply to the new demand created by the natural disaster (William & Shepherd, 2016). (Storr et al., 2015) also argues that entrepreneurship in these situations is not only found along traditional
business-people, but it can also be volunteers, organisations, or even governments.
A particular behaviour pattern has recently been recognised among bigger sized states, sending aid and entrepreneurial firms to disaster-struck areas, Naomi Klein coined this
9 behaviour as Disaster Capitalism (Schuller & Maldonado, 2016). The behaviour creates the opportunity to strengthen political bonds while benefitting the domestic firms and stimulating activity in the disaster struck market, although, these activities have gotten many critiques for blocking opportunities for local entrepreneurs (Klein, 2007). The main issue is that the firms receive offers due to nationality rather than any competitive advantages such as geographical closeness, competence (Klein, 2005).
The apparent gap is the activities performed by a non-local firm from a market perspective in an environment recently struck by a natural disaster. The gap was spotted, not only by us, but multiple documents (Aldrich, 2017; Storr et al., 2015; Galbraith & Stiles, 2006) has stated that this specific gap exists. There is also a consensus that more empirical studies should investigate this phenomenon to get a clearer image of the mechanisms an organisations pursuit in this decided upon the situation.
Criteria Theme Subject Author(s)
Disaster capitalism Policy change Small states’ disaster capitalism
Broome
Policy change American disaster capitalism
Klein
Disaster economics Dark side of disaster capitalism
Klein
Defining concept Local communities' eyes on disaster capitalism
Schuller & Maldonado
Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurial activities Acts between
opportunity & creating
Klein
Entrepreneural activities Firms starting or surviving post-disaster
Stauten
Entrepreneurial activities Mechanisms behind entrepreneurship
Berglund
Social Entrepreneurship Public sector creates recovery opportunities
Dickinson
Post-disaster market Entrepreneurial activities Creation of opportunities Monllor & Murphy Entrepreneurial activities Local entrepreneurs Williams & Shepherd Entrepreneurial activities Local Entrepreneurs Aldrich
Entrepreneurial activities Entrepreneur’s role in the community
Storr et al
Firm recovery Long term recovery Joakim & Wismer Firm recovery Victims build back Williams & Shepherd Globalisation Trade post-disaster Galbraith & Stiles Post-disaster policy Opportunity Change brings
opportunities
Birkman et al
Policy change Community Resilience Linnenluecke & McKnight Policy change System Resilience Allenby Entrepreneurial activities Entrepreneur’s role in
the community
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Community repercussions
Foreign Aid does more harm than good
Moyo
Community repercussions
Building back better Kennedy et al
2.2 Natural Disasters
This study intends to focus on natural disasters in this thesis and thereby excluding
humanmade disasters that usually are related to political turmoil or governmental conflicts before the disaster hits. Natural disasters may be classified into different types, according to Wirasinghe, Jithamala Caldera, Seneviratne, Ruwanpura, (Wirasinghe et al., 2013). There are seven main types: mass movement dry (e.g. landslide or avalanche on land), earthquake, volcanoes, storms, floods, mass movement wet (e.g. landslide or avalanche in water), and meteorite (or asteroid). The mentioned events can in unity be described as natural
disturbances in a geographic region and then based on the destruction the phenomenon brings if the natural disturbance brings severe destruction and damage to a region it may be
considered a disaster. A less severe event, where damage and destruction are less intense than a disaster, is known as an emergency (Wirasinghe et al., 2013). Throughout this document, the natural disturbances brought up or mentioned will fall into the category of natural disaster, and not a natural emergency.
The United Nations classifies disasters in three degrees; Severe Damage, Moderate Damage, and Light Damage (UN, 1992 p.24). A disaster that is classified as Severe is “which
precludes further use of the structure, facility, or object for its intended purpose”. Moderate leaves facilities unable to continue operation unless reparations are performed. Light damage can be broken windows or ceilings with holes; nevertheless, the facilities can operate as usual.
Depending on the impact of the natural disaster, a crisis may occur, bringing significant changes to structures of organisations. These disasters and crises can cause irreversible change in conditions and relationships of the external environment of a venture (Birkmann et al., 2008). When a natural disaster causes a crisis, external help is needed, either interregional or international.
Due to climate change, scientists have seen an increasing number of natural disasters. An increase both in the frequency as well as the size of these disasters have been recorded in
11 recent years, and attention has therefore been turned towards natural disasters in the research world (Aldrich, 2017). As a natural disaster strikes, opportunities open for organisations to establish themselves in a post-disaster environment (Monllor & Murphy, 2017).
(Monllor & Murphy, 2017) explain the essence of what organisations developing or
establishing themselves in a post-disaster environment will have for the local community, and how research is lacking in the factors that make organisations with an entrepreneurial
character establish themselves in these markets. Monllor & Murphy presents a case in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake that struck Haiti, and how this disaster damaged the system for money withdrawals from ATMs since most of them were destroyed in the earthquake. The organisation T-Cash saw an opportunity to implement money transfer through cell phones for the populations; this made money accessible for individuals and their communities.
As the business environment and market environment are turned upside-down post-natural disaster, a window of opportunity opens for new ventures to pursue entrepreneurial activities. The factor causing these opportunities is essentially the natural disaster, it is thereby essential for a venture to understand the phenomenon causing them as well as understanding their characteristics and impact in order to navigate and pursue activities in a post-disaster environment (Storr et al., 2015).
2.3. Business environment
As organisations are dependent on the external environment where they operate, existing businesses from a region struck by a natural disaster will be put on extreme restraint post-disaster, if survival is even possible at all (Monllor, Murphy, 2017). Local organisations may decide to scale down their operation or even leave the region after a disaster has struck. This leaves room for new ventures and, more significant, a corporation’s subsidiaries to enter the local market.
The organisations remaining in the region or those arriving on the post-disaster environment providing disaster response will experience an increasing demand that may exceed their response capacity. The increase in demand requires the organisations to restructure in order to meet the demand (Linnenluecke, McKnight, 2016).
The affected region rarely has all the supplies of goods and other assets needed to rebuild and get back on their feet. This creates an opportunity for non-local companies to pursue
12 (Chamlee-Wright; Storr., 2010). Destruction can hit the local markets, which creates an opportunity for entrepreneurial actions in the form of replacing old restaurants, stores, and more, that might have been destroyed during the disaster. There have been multiple studies investigating how local firms in disaster-struck regions structure their activities and whether they could remain in business or not despite the disturbance (Aldrich, 2017, Storr et al., 2015, Williams; Shepherd, 2016). The activities and mechanisms of local entrepreneurs have thereby already been investigated and are argumentatively not of our interest to investigate further. The non-local companies establishing themselves in a post-disaster market face a different starting point since their labour force, and tangible assets are not as much affected by the disaster as the local organisations are (Chamlee-Wright; Storr., 2010). Our sample includes cases solely from a non-local organisation.
In order for a venture to be resilient in a post-disaster environment, they have to investigate the environment they find themselves in and keep a close eye to possible changes that might occur (Williams & Shepherd, 2016). As post-disaster environments are far from stable and contain much turmoil, ventures need to observe the ever-changing current state of the market and then acquire the modifications needed to remain profitable (Williams & Shepherd, 2016). 2.3. Opportunity
From an entrepreneurial perspective, an opportunity is a situation in which goods, services, raw material, and organising methods can be introduced to a population and sold at a higher price than their cost in order to make a profit (Casson, 1982). Adding value in either
discovery or optimising already existing systems are essential for entrepreneurial opportunities (Shane, Venkataraman, 2000).
When destruction strikes and systems end up interrupted, there is a push of increased entrepreneurial mindset due to the circumstances (Monllor, Murphy, 2017). Specific industries are more likely to gain post-disasters, such as construction, due to the need to rebuild facilities that were damaged when the natural disaster struck. Ventures supplying the current need of a community will perform well and tend to increase its turnover post-disaster. For the rebuilding and positive outcome to start, opportunities must be recognised by
someone who finds them valuable enough to seize them (Shane, Venkataraman, 2000). The two depending factors for opportunity recognition are the information needed to identify it and enough understanding to value it.
13 2.4. Entrepreneurial Actions
Opportunity recognition and entrepreneurial actions are two closely related phenomena but do not necessarily always go hand in hand (Klein, 2008). Entrepreneurial actions are often pursued after an opportunity has been recognised and deemed feasible, it is a broad term considering actions performed such as investments, creation, and development into new or already existing entrepreneurs, ventures, and organisations (Klein, 2008).
Entrepreneurial actions are more common in those instances where assets are likely to remain accessible, and organisations are expected to create value from the opportunity recognised compensating for their efforts made (McMullen et al. 2008). Competitive firms also spotting the opportunity may decrease the likeliness of new entrepreneurial actions being taken, likewise will a government with the intent to nationalised critical assets have a negative impact on a novel activity. Governmental policies and institutions will have a significant impact on the likelihood of entrepreneurial actions being taken and developed in any region (McMullen et al. 2008).
Klein (2008) brings up the importance of judgement for an organisation when performing an entrepreneurial action and how it is essential throughout the process of entrepreneurial action. By investigating the situation and environment where the venture spots the opportunity, Klein argues that judging the situation present and henceforth understanding if the opportunity is worth the risk is critical when pursuing an entrepreneurial action. McMullen (et al. 2008) further on investigates the stability of the market in which an opportunity may be spotted and how the entrepreneurial actions that follow are greatly affected by said market environment and how stable it is. An investigation on the market and governmental policies are essential before pursuing entrepreneurial actions in a new market to evaluate risks, profits, and possibilities for a venture.
2.5. Disaster Capitalism
According to the Oxford dictionary, Disaster Capitalism is defined as “the practice (by a government or a regime) of taking advantage of a major disaster to adopt neoliberal economic policies that the population would be less likely to accept under normal circumstances” (Oxford dictionary, 2020). The phenomenon is a strategy for a government or regime to spot an opportunity and handing it to a domestic firm for the firm to pursue entrepreneurial actions either internationally or domestically. The practice of disaster capitalism has due to process through governments and regimes given it a political nature (Shuller, 2016). Most empirical
14 research done about disaster capitalism has, therefore analysed the policy arrangements rather than perspectives, motivations, and opportunities for non-profit and profit organisations. When it comes to natural disasters, multiple countries often use their foreign aid department to send help right after natural disasters strike to ensure the survival of the local population. At the same time, an opportunity is created for domestic ventures to enter the market of the disaster-struck country and aid by developing the destroyed infrastructure, spot new
opportunities for domestic organisations while addressing the situation (Linnenluecke, McKnight, 2017). Disaster capitalism is a strategy for governments and regimes to spot an opportunity in a post-disaster environment abroad for a domestic firm, which then can pursuit entrepreneurial actions in the foreign market.
Disaster capitalism is a new way for developed countries to interfere with countries’
economy without having negative repercussions since the mandate is to help people in need (Klein, 2007).
In some instances, the organisations hired by the government or regime see natural disasters as a way to increase their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and give their organisation a positive reputation. To interfere in a different country’s economy to help to rebuild
communities post-disaster and build a brand in the local markets can, in the end, benefit the venture, and lead to a new opportunity and a new market (Klein, 2007). Disaster Capitalism becomes more frequent as ventures and organisations see the profits the post-disaster
opportunities can bring. Some ventures jump adapts to the local mentality and adopts policies and work methods that are more common in the local area to cater to the disaster-struck region (Klein, 2007). Companies create action plans to benefit from those disasters to ensure new workflow into the company to provide more revenues and profits. The post-disaster opportunities, when navigated successfully, cause the creation of subsidiaries or the
production of new products to fill the gap in the market and the need for a particular products. 2.6. Gap in literature
A common topic within the field of business in post-disaster markets is mainly investigating and analysing how the communities react to natural disasters and how they reform
themselves as a response of the disaster (Chamlee-Wright; Storr, 2008, Linnenluecke; McKnight, 2017). There are also multiple studies written about foreign governments taking entrepreneurial actions through their domestic private ventures in regions struck by
15 data mainly discuss the government side of this doctrine and not enough on the private side of the spectrum. When the private sector is discussed, it only analyses the local entrepreneurs and ventures (Monllor & Murphy, 2017; Williams & Shepherd, 2016).
In this study, we want to investigate more on how private organisations and ventures navigate and act when entering a foreign or a distant disaster-struck market. This topic is of interest to investigate as natural disasters get more frequent as time pass, and thereby by investigating what key actions are more likely to create a triumphant entrance to the market.
There is a visible gap portraying and investigating the perspective of non-local ventures entering the post-natural disaster market environments. However, it is not unfamiliar for non-local organisations to enter a post-disaster market; there is little literature investigating it. Therefore we decided to investigate this part of the field by gathering qualitative data from a venture that has entered post-disaster markets in three situations. The element from this perspective, we have decided to investigate further is the key actions an organisation can take in order to benefit from entering that specific market.
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3. Methodology & Method
3.1. Methodology
3.1.1 Research Philosophy
In the field of business, there are five more commonly used research philosophies. Depending on the philosophy used, the same study may present different results; the choice of research philosophy is, therefore, essential for the quality and credibility of the research performed (Saunders et. Al., 2019). We chose to use the philosophy of interpretivism since our empirical data came from a small sample of qualitative character, of decision-makers from Newtech. They told their perspective of certain events and decisions they have experienced and made. Interpretivism supports the idea that individuals can be presented with the same situation and experience it in various ways due to factors such as cultural background, previous experience, and so on (Saunders et. Al., 2019). Saunders also states that by analysing these different perspectives, a rich nuance of the same event will bring a broader understanding. This understanding of nuance would be hard, if even possible, to replicate where perspectives are not taken into account and focus only lies within the actual events and actions.
Since the strategy we intend to gather data will be through a small sample of three individuals working for the Canadian company Newtech, telling the stories of how the company acted and what activities were pursued in a few cases where Newtech entered and operated in post-disaster markets. Our findings did not represent a result found from a quantitative study with multiple organisations interviewed, just one single case study. We, therefore, needed to rely on a philosophy in which this type of research gave the results which would be truthful with the right process. The philosophy of interpretivism might have skewed the understanding of a situation due to the common tendency of generalising, it was essential to comprehend while working with this philosophy that these data may show the truth of a selected few, and not be a truthful representation of all.
3.1.2. Research Design
For the research design, we used the approach of an exploratory study, since we intended to explore and analyse the gap in the literature. An exploratory design is appropriate when collecting new, qualitative data (Saunders et al., 2019). Saunders also described exploratory research design as flexible, can be modified if necessary and more natural to adapt compared to descriptive research design. Furthermore, exploratory design studies and explains the cause-and-effects of a phenomenon, which was a necessity for our research question which
17 analysed actions and the impact they have. We intended to gather our data through interviews with individuals in decision-making positions in the organisation of Newtech. The interviews were mainly surrounding the topic of how the venture acted when entering a post-disaster market and what consequences those actions had.
Although literature exists before this thesis about the post-disaster environment and the importance of entrepreneurial actions within them, little academia has explored the angle of organisations presented with new empirical data (Monllor, Murphy, 2017). especially with organisations that were not present actors on the market before the disaster, despite there being a trend of non-local ventures entering the market post-disaster (William, Shepherd, 2016; Aldrich, 2017). The research design was therefore justified to use since the purpose of this thesis intended to shed light on something that had yet to be explored within the market of a post-disaster environment and add to the current research already performed.
3.1.3 Research Approach
The two more common research approaches are deductive and inductive; there is also a third, a less popular approach called abductive (Saunders et al., 2019). Deductive researches start by stating a hypothesis or theory and then gather data to create proof that the already
established idea is true or false, and thereby if it should be accepted or rejected. An inductive approach does the opposite and gathers data to create a hypothesis or theory. The abductive approach which starts with a conclusion, and then moves back and forth between theory and data, thereby combining the inductive and deductive approaches (Sanders et al., 2019). For our study, we saw it most fitting to use the inductive approach, since the question we had chosen to ask and base all research was open-ended and therefore suitable for the inductive approach. Secondly, we intended to gather qualitative data, as stated above, which made an inductive approach the most fitting for the study, this also circled back to the lack of empirical studies performed about non-local organisations’ perspective in post-disaster environments. We went into this research without any already established hypothesis or theory on what actions results in financial gains for an organisation that enters a post-disaster environment and intended to develop a theory on what actions leads to a positive result for the venture based on the investigation made on NewTech. Lastly, as this is a study within the field of social science rather than natural science, it fell more natural to use the inductive approach. The inductive approach has a more profound respect for situations and individuals’
18 tendency not to develop, think and act differently due to pre-existing conditions (Saunders et al., 2019).
3.1.4. Research Strategy
There are three types of strategy in research design, quantitative, qualitative, and multiple methods research design, the goal is to plan out how to answer the research question (Saunders et al., 2019). As we explained in part above, we interviewed a small number of decision-makers within the organisation of NewTech about how the organisation has acted when successfully entering a new, post-disaster market. Qualitative data strategy is most often combined with the research philosophy of interpretivism, as researchers want to gain a perspective of the phenomenon studied. The data is gathered through one or multiple case studies to gain more in-depth knowledge about each case (Saunders et al., 2019), which is what we intended to do by interviewing a small number of firms on a deeper level of how they experience opportunities in post-disasters.
Qualitative research is more often associated with “How?” and “Why?”, instead of
investigating a pattern or “how many?” which commonly is the case for quantitative studies (Pratt, 2009). Furthermore, Pratt points out that qualitative research should allow the reader to “understand the perspective of those studied”. We were not interested in, for example, how many non-local organisations act in post-disaster environments; we wanted to understand what actions organisations would pursue in specific environments in order to benefit financially. Our intentions were also to explore how the interviewees, in their roles as founders and owners, made decisions through a certain time frame, why they made the decisions as they did and so on.
3.2. Method
3.2.1 Sample Selection
For the sample selection, since natural disasters create destructions, we decided to focus on a company that specialises in the architectural installations of facilities and houses, the
construction business is one of the essential businesses that have a significant role in the post-disaster market.
We contacted multiple organisations in the installation industry, asking if they could take part in being part of the data for this thesis. We got few responses, suspecting that restrictions due to the present outbreak of Covid-19 in early 2020 put on all organisations around the world. To the few that responded, we sent a shorter number of questions (“pre-interview questions”
19 in the appendix) to make sure from the start their experience was relevant. Based on the answers we got back, one organisation, Newtech Installation from Canada, was deemed suitable for our thesis. This because they repeatedly had entered multiple post-disaster
environment markets in other regions from their own and thereby had multiple experiences in the field we intend to investigate.
3.2.2. Data Collection 3.2.2.1 Newtech Inc.
NewTech Installation Inc. is a Canadian woodworking venture. The organisation specialises with architectural woodwork installations in homes and facilities since 1992 (Newtech, 2020). Newtech Installation was founded in Acton Vale, Quebec, in the French part of Canada and has since entered the markets of the United States of America in the year 1999 (Interview with person X) and has also performed projects in Bermuda, Algeria, and United Arab Emirates to mention a few. The company provides services in the form of installations performed by educated and skilled workers (Interview with person Z).
Since the beginning, Newtech has reached out to new opportunities and invested time and financial assets in a research and development branch for installations. Representatives from the organisation are active in multiple woodworking boards across North America in order to have easier time spotting opportunities and establishing themselves to a broader client group. The co-founders always put value in listening and having a keen ear towards employees as well as customers to improve their services (interview with person Y, a co-founder). According to person Z, who is the planner for all the North American projects, the area of focus that Newtech is usually conducting business in are a few different zones on the North American continent. Newtech usually works in regions such as the province of Quebec, New England, the province of Ontario, the state of New York, and California. Those areas are where Newtech has created their reputation and have experienced most of their business over their 28 years of existence. The venture has experience of entering new markets and how to transport assets over the massive North American continent in order to perform their project. The biggest asset is the workforce, which is relatively easy to move geographically (interview with person Z).
3.2.2.2. Participants
There were interviews conducted with three individuals working for the Canadian company Newtech including one of the current co-owners, person X, one co-founder, person Y and a
20 project planner in the organisation, person Z. These three participants all sit on decision-making positions which make their experience and opinions relevant to investigate for analysing actions that the venture has performed.
Emphasis was finding participants with varied positions in order to create multiple
perspectives on what the key-actions were, and to what degree the three participants, which each their perspective, agreed with each other.
All participants were taking part in a minimum of three interviews, each with the average interview spanning an hour. All participants performed all their interviews individually, in order to ensure data was gathered from three different angles as far as possible. As the three participants have been part of the organisation for a varying amount of time, and the natural-disaster cases span over a decade, different participants had a different amount of input on each of the cases.
3.2.2.3 Questions
Before we started investigating the case itself, we identified the context for our data (Collis et al., 2014). We began each interview with broader questions about the firm, the situation, the setting, and numerous political, social, and legal influences in this situation. Only when we reached a satisfying level of contextualisation, we began asking questions about the cases. Throughout the interviews, we used open questions to ensure longer and more detailed answers from the participants. Closed questions were only asked in particular situations or as follow-up questions. The interviews were semi-structured. Therefore, we prepared several questions covering the main aspects and the essential points of the topic. Refraining from completely structured interview allowed us to ask follow-up questions and dive in more in-depth when we felt the need to do so. An unstructured interview is not guaranteed to provide enough data to answer our research question satisfyingly. Nevertheless, we might have to switch to an unstructured part of the interview if we encounter an aspect that we failed to identify previously.
The questions for each interview were based on a small number of questions setting the theme for what we wanted to investigate each time (Appendix III). However, they were often used more like a compass than a script in order to make the interview more natural, to allow follow-up questions to float freely, and to create a less strict atmosphere, which could have made it easier for the participants to talk.
21 3.2.2.4. Limitations
As the venture is based in the French part of Canada, as were our three participants. This caused a problem in the form of a language barrier since only one of the authors of this thesis is fluent in French. In the very beginning of the first interview with each participant, we asked if they preferred the interviews to be held in English or in French, to which all of them responded that they would rather express themselves in their first language, French. This did not only cause the limitation of only one of the authors being able to hold and participate in the interviews, but it also opens the risk for translation errors. However, we preferred letting the participants choose, in order to create a more comfortable environment for them and make it easier for them to express themselves.
3.2.3 Interview Process
In the early stages of this essay, the plan was to meet the decision-makers from Newtech we intended to interview, however, due to Covid-19 and local restrictions, we decided to conduct the interviews through an online telecommunication application for verbal communication. We contacted Newtech via email with ten questions to respond in a written manner for us to analyse, and we had continuous interviews with the three representatives of the company throughout April. The interviews were based on each other and created a nuanced picture of a handful of events that the venture has navigated through in three different cases. As the interviews were re-occurring, we had the opportunity to investigate and ask for further information more in-depth than if only one interview were performed per person, as we
interviewed people on different positions, we received a more holistic picture of the situation. To have a deeper understanding on the topic, we conducted three separate interviews which each employee, the first interview included questions related to the image of the company and investigation on different natural disasters in which they had spotted and seized an opportunity. The second round of interviews took place after we had made extensive research on these events and had a tone where we asked questions on how they responded and worked on those natural disasters. The third round of interviews, we asked questions about how they would generally conduct business and how natural disasters have affected them with their systematic working methods on regular projects.
The interviews held in French were later translated and transcribed to English by the author conducting them for the spirit of the interview to remain. We did not want to force the language of the interview to be in English. However, that would have reduced the risk of
22 faulty translation. However, we wanted to give the representatives of Newtech to express themselves in a way that made them feel the most comfortable and able to get across with the explanations and definitions they found fit best.
To have a better understanding on the subject, we also conducted further investigations once we conducted the first interviews with them and analysed it and came back with further interviews to expand on the topics, and we believed it lacked certain information. 3.2.4. Data Analysis
We chose to present, evaluate, and understand the empirical data gathered by a narrative analysis, in the form of thematic approach (Symon & Cassell, 2012) where data collected from the interviews are presented as stories with underlying themes or reoccurring patterns from the narratives. The main reason why we decided to use this form of analysing is due to thematic approach’s ability to identify key elements of the narrative. These core events are reoccurring in the interviews (Symon & Cassell, 2012). As our main objective was to find the key actions that an organisation pursues when entering a non-local post-natural disaster market, we evaluated that this approach fits our research question best.
Through the thematic kind of narrative analysis, we analyse the interviews of three decision-makers within the Newtech organisation, person X, person Y, and person Z focusing on three occasions in which the venture has entered a post-disaster market. The three occasions were a blizzard on the eastern part of the border between the U.S and Canada, earthquake in Haiti, and forest fire in Fort McMurphy in English Canada. During the interviews in which we asked the interviewees to tell the story of how Newtech acted and what cause and effect they created. Afterwards, we lined up the three versions of the three events which created nine stories in which we would analyse the themes and patterns.
With the nine stories gathered, we analysed what reoccurring actions Newtech took in order to profit from entering each post-disaster market, and what actions that were not equally prioritised in each market entry and what consequences that brought. We succeeded in finding five key actions that Newtech on semi-regular basis persuaded when entering a post-disaster market, that when not prioritised, caused a backlash and sometimes a significant loss for the company.
23 4. Ethics & Trustworthiness
As our interview process with Newtech started, we realised that there would be a need to truthfully translate the interviews from the local French dialect in a manner that would justifiably represent the words as well as the spirit of what was said. The reason was due to person X, person Y, and person Z all had chosen to answer the questions in their mother tongue. Since this is an family business, we will not keep a written official transcript of the interviews in respect of General Data Protection Regulation (GDRP) We do not want
competitors finding the data discussed by Newtech’s representatives against themselves. One of the authors of this thesis happens to origin from the very region in Canada where the interviewees live and work, which created a smaller risk of words and speaking manners getting lost in translation. There was a confidentiality agreement decided upon prior to any interview taking place as well as a verbal, recorded agreement in the very start of each interview. This agreement was created in order to ensure that the interviewees felt confident concerning the privacy of data being kept intact and used solely for this thesis. The interviews were conducted in a voluntary matter, and the participants were treated with respect and the data was responsibly reported after collecting it during the interviews.
It was of great importance that, throughout the whole process, we respected three primary ethical considerations, the justification for the research, access to participants, and informed consent. Justification for research includes questioning whether interviewing the chosen venture contributes to our research as well as if it adds to the subject of post-disaster
entrepreneurship. The access to participants was greatly affected by the Covid-19 outbreak, sweeping across the world the same month as we had intended to gather our data. The outbreak caused a reduced possibility for ventures to take time for interviews and focused lied on what was vital for many companies to stay in business. As mentioned earlier, we made sure to inform the participants what our intention was for the data we intended to collect and generally we attempted transparency as far as we saw possible, and would not go forth with any collection without consent from the participants.
Furthermore, all interviews were held via an online telecommunication application and were verbal. This was partly due to the government of Canada made significant restrictions on the movements of its population, which had a massive impact on the three participants who were all located in Canada during the interview period. All interviews were recorded to ensure their validities and were then transcribed in English and added to our pool of data.
24 We also made sure that no participant would come to harm during the interview or through our research in any way. We kept the participants well informed about the process they went through, and what the research would be used for and what role the data they gave us would play in the thesis. The interviews were held during working hours, in a professional tone in order to not overstep into the participants' private life, avoiding questions that might have caused an invasion of privacy. We made sure not to ask questions that the participants might have felt uncomfortable to respond to, and overall were observant to ensure that the
participant found us trustworthy and adequate to gather their data. Lastly, it is important to ensure that there was no deception, nor fraud while conducting the interviews, we are not twisting the words or using quotes without the context of the situation or the question to achieve a specific gain or finding. We will follow a code of conduct to ensure that everything is up to code, and nothing will be used deceitfully.
25 5. Findings
5.1. Newtech Inc.
5.1.1. North American Ice Storm of 1998
In the first months of 1998, the eastern part of the border (with surroundings) of Canada and the U.S. got hit by an ice storm that later got classified as a natural disaster (Dupigny-Giroux, 2000). The ice storms caused damages to, e.g. facilities, infrastructure and had a grave impact on the local markets.
At this point, Newtech had already scoped out parts of the U.S as a possible future
opportunity. "Due to the ice storm, our clients left the province of Quebec to go do business in areas in the United States of America that were more suitable for them to conduct business, so we were offered to follow them in their adventure." (Person X, interview 2) The ice storm caused several of their clients to re-locate or rebuild facilities destroyed in the blizzards. Newtech decided to act fast rather than with caution, clients that had moved across the borders created an opportunity for the venture, but also a risk. "In 1998, my [co-founder] and I drove to the border, and the only three words that we could speak at the time were, 'Yes', 'No', and 'strawberry'. We could not speak English at the time, and this was a major risk for us." (Person X, interview 1) As Newtech had always valued their relations with clients, and made sure to leave a project with satisfied clients, they evaluated the situation and came to the conclusion that their past relations would grant them a possible market in the U.S. earlier than expected due to the ice storms. Newtech crossed the border and were greeted with open arms by old clients. "The fact that the economy slowed down due to the ice storm, we had the manpower capacity to start working in regions such as New England and the New-York area right away and satisfy our clients." (Person X, interview 1). However, limitations caused by language barriers created specific difficulties, as none of the founders at the time of the entry of the U.S. market spoke more than a few words of English. "Learning proper English and the valuable terms that were used in the industry at the time were our main focus to be able to give excellent service to our clients", (Person X interview 1). Hence, we decided to take English lessons to improve our skills." The organisation kept a close eye on the market and adapted to it without losing their values, and today the U.S. is one of the biggest markets for Newtech.
26 5.1.2. Earthquake in Haiti 2010
In January 2010, the Republic of Haiti was hit by an earthquake close to the capitol Port-aux-Prince, which caused devastating destruction for the island nation (DesRoches et al., 2011). Nearly half of all facilities close to the epicentre collapsed, 300 000 people lost their lives, and the event has been called one of the most devastating natural disasters in recent history (DesRoches et al., 2011).
After the natural disaster had struck Haiti, Newtech saw an opportunity in the at the time shambles in Port-aux-prince and decided to seize it despite the risk. “For us, Newtech, being an entrepreneur is a synonym of being Risk-takers, you cannot not take this into
consideration, and therefore we decided to go help people in Haiti after the earthquake.” (Person Y, interview 1) Newtech sent employees and equipment down to Haiti after receiving a contract on a project to build an orphanage. Newtech saw the opportunity; this time, the opportunity was to strengthen the portfolio and for ethical reasons rather than financial gain. As the employees landed in Haiti, it did not take long before they realised tensions and felt unsafe in the environment. “Once we started the project, we soon realised that we did not take in consideration that our employees would risk their lives on the construction site, but rather by the chaos in the streets and the fact that our employees were not locals which created friction with the population. At some point, we were scared for the safety of our workers.” (Person X, Interview 2) The project had been well prepared equipment-wise pre-arrival, but there had been few investigations on the social environment that the workers would face, navigate, and live in a while completing the project. In this case, as the decision-makers within the organisation maintained a vital two-way communication with the employees stationed in Haiti, and contacted locals to create possible protection for their workers. The decision-makers in the project were also ready to adapt when it was called for to ensure the safety of their staff. “To make sure no kidnapping who happen since all of our workers are of a white decent, we had to hire a security firm to protect our people until the end of the
process to ensure their safety. Since then, this helped us understand the difference between first-world country projects and third-world country projects. Since this event, we had this type of situation in the equation when we are looking for new projects at the firm.” (Person X, interview 2)
The orphanage ended up costing more than what was first expected, mostly due to the dangers that the employees met in their everyday life in Haiti. When looking back at the
27 project, a more comprehensive investigation should have been performed concerning the workers’ environment and what possible threats they could have faced.
5.1.3. Fort McMurray Horse River Wildfire 2016
In the summer of 2016, Alberta, Canada, experienced wildfires, so grave that 88 000
individuals had to be evacuated and circa 2 400 buildings got destroyed (Mamuji, Rozdilsky, 2019). The fire was raging from early May and was declared under control two months later in July and caused the greatest evacuation of people in the country’s recorded history (Mamuji, Rozdilsky, 2019).
Newtech had before the outbreak of the forest fires already a contract on a project in Fort McMurray, and with the established relationship with the locals, spotted an opportunity in the destruction that followed the natural disasters. “In our field of business, we usually agree on projects a few months or years in advance, the forest fires was a coincidence, but to benefit from the situation we sent extra tools and a few extra workers to be able to sell our workforce to the other projects of reconstruction around the town and this will help us get new clients as well”, (Person X). As Newtech had already scoped out the environment, and since it was in the familiar territory of English Canada, the opportunity was deemed sizable and profitable. The expectations were that the venture would be on the site of Fort McMurray for years to take part in the re-building of the city, and so Newtech prepared in terms of equipment and workforce for that. The preparations were an essential part of the project according to Person Z: “The most important thing that most entrepreneurs forget to do is the planning. Once you plan accordingly, you can achieve way more, and this is a speciality for us since we can adapt quickly on all fronts.” (Person Z, interview 3)
As the wildfire was still burning, but under control, Newtech had to maintain a certain distance from it to ensure the health its workers and switched between different locations in the city depending on the weather and wildfires. “To ensure the protection and safe travelling of our workers, we analysed the closets hotels and the routes that lead to our construction site to save time and money every day.” (Person Z, interview 3) As nature is unpredictable, the decision-makers in charge of the project had a thorough stream of ever-updating news about the current state of the wildfires. This system was implemented in order to avoid possible risks strategically and if needed, be able to make quick decisions to the benefit of the workers as well as the project.
28 6. Analysis & Discussion
In order to enter a market, the venture must first spot an opportunity to gain financially or in assets of other forms (Shane, Venkataraman, 2000) in a situation presented to them. The opportunity must create a greater profit than loss presented by the risk. Newtech has pursued the action of seizing an opportunity in multiple cases, being in post-disaster environments, or non-disaster related markets. Opportunity is the trigger for possible profit, and if set into action becomes the first key step, both according to literature and the empirical findings, to enter a new market. Post-disaster markets present opportunities and are often in grave need of non-local firms to establish themselves. However, these markets are high-risk (Monllor & Murphy, 2017), which in term may be less attractive for ventures. Newtech however, has multiple times proved to be risk-takers, which increases the likelihood for them to pursue the seizing for an opportunity despite the risk.
Investigating the environment that the current market is in pre-arrival is vital for a venture that plans to enter it. The action of investigation goes hand in hand with whether an
opportunity is worth the risk. However, this action focuses more on the means presented to sustain the opportunity, or if action should not be taken (Klein, 2008). From the empirical data gathered for this thesis, there was a pattern in the level of the investigation made before the venture entered the market and unexpected costs as well as losses can be spotted and henceforth suggest that with less investigation comes fewer gains. Klein (2008) also
emphasises on the importance to keep investigating the market throughout the time that the venture is present, as did Newtech but using the term ‘observe’, while Klein used the term ‘judge’. William and Shepherd (2016) explain the turmoil and unstable nature of a post-disaster market and how it frequently changes. Which in turns lead them to argue for that the ventures who end up successful in this type of market, are the ones which continuously keep a close eye to it, and put a great effort in observing it.
William and Shepherd (2016) link the action of observing the market environment with adapting to it, both actions, they argue, are vital in this type of market. Newtech did also emphasise in all the three cases of post-disaster market entry, that for the project to survive, adaption was a key action that needed to be performed multiple times throughout the projects. Based on the three cases of Newtech entering post-disaster markets that have been presented in chapter 5, Findings, there are five key actions that the organisation keeps performing, or in one instance did not which lead to avoidable consequences. These five actions were in the
29 order: opportunity seizing, pre-arrival investigation of the environment, preparations based on the performed investigation, a continuous observation of the market, adapting when needed. Four of the five actions discovered in the empirical findings were also discoverable in the literature review.
When collecting data from Newtech, a pattern of five key actions appeared in the three cases they presented in which they had entered post-disaster markets. These actions were built on one another and dependent on each other, which means that over-performing in all but one, will not replace the one missing, they are all needed to enter and thrive in a post-disaster market successfully. However, one of the five actions could not be found in the pre-existing literature, the action in question is “preparations based on the performed investigation”, and should, according to the empirical findings, be performed pre-entering.
The fact that the action of preparing presented above cannot be supported in the literature decreases the validity of the action. It suggests that it does not fit with the other four actions, as they all are supported by pre-existing literature (Klein, 2008; Monllor & Murhpy, 2017; William & Shepherd, 2016). What else to mention is that while these actions seem relevant in this study, a venture in a different industry might give a completely different result, primarily since the venture in this study performs a service that is important and has a high demand right after a natural disaster of greater destruction. This can create a skewed view of what an organisation within a different industry or offering a different type of service might find these key actions irrelevant.
As the literature concerning the subject of post-disaster markets mostly analyses and theorise around the local entrepreneurs and ventures, it cannot wholly translate and discuss all the elements a non-local organisation is exposed to when entering the same market. As a result, the current literature in the subject is not representative of the perspective discussed and brought forth in this study. In terms, this suggests that the four key actions presented in the literature review may be incomplete as they are created based on actors that are already on-site, affected by the natural disaster.
The key actions found in the empirical data are the following five: 1. Spot the opportunity in the risk
2. Investigate the environment pre-arrival 3. Preparations based on the investigation
30 5. Always adapt if needed
This answers the exploratory research question presented at the beginning of this study. Four of these five actions are supported by theoretical studies based on entrepreneurial actions performed by successful local ventures and organisations. The added action, number 3
(Preparations) was added to accommodate the elements non-local ventures face and cannot be supported theoretically due to the gap in the literature. The action was still added in due to the strong relationship in the empirical data, which suggests that it is valid to include.
The practical implications in this study suggest that there are five key actions, as mentioned above, that a venture can perform in order to decrease the turmoil and risk of failure when entering a post-natural disaster market. These five actions present a pattern which gives the theoretical implication that in the elements presented to non-local ventures are not the same as the ones for local ventures. There is currently a lack of literature and studies within this field, which opens the opportunity for future studies.
As natural disasters escalate both in size and number due to global warming (Aldrich, 2017), investigating how non-local ventures can enter a post-disaster market with an idea of what actions are vital to perform and invest in. Non-local ventures entrants may increase and investigate more in disaster struck markets as they increase in numbers. The result of this study sheds light on a perspective of entrepreneurial actions in the post-disaster market that has yet to be investigated. It adds an element that is present in the practical world, while there has been little to no acknowledgements of it in theoretical studies prior to this thesis. Non-local ventures and actors are present in the post-disaster market, and with this addition to the field, we can now understand what key actions they are to take in order to profit from the post-disaster market.
As this study cannot investigate, analyse, and explain more than the key actions of the non-local ventures entering the post-disaster market, there are plenty of perspectives, situations, and strategies to explore and discover on this topic. There is also a limitation in this study as it explores a woodworking installation firm alone; these five actions may be applied to ventures in other industries and tested for relevancy.
31 7. Conclusion
This research was set out to investigate what key actions a non-local venture may perform in a post-disaster environment. Through literature analysis and analysis of qualitative data, we can conclude that there are five key actions: take the opportunity, investigate, prepare, observe, and adapt. These actions have been discovered through empirical data and are supported by data to a certain degree. While the result has a limitation of generalising the findings, due to it being a one case study, the approach provides new insight and a more nuanced perspective of the specific case of Newtech. The impact Covid-19 had on society caused limitations for interviews and findings in general for this thesis, which in turn made the findings less dense and nuanced than what was intended.
Based on this conclusion, ventures that strive to enter a non-local post-disaster market should implement the five actions in their plan of the entrance. Furthermore, it presents the
perspective to the literature that has previously been neglected by previous studies. This five-action plan can help managers to prepare themselves and face these natural disasters with a better vision and a clear road ahead of them to seek financial gain.
As the new perspective has been introduced to the field of non-local organisations entering the post-disaster market, there are now multiple opportunities to further investigate and perform research on other elements of this perspective.
For future investigations, to close the gap, even more, investigation on a different sphere of the spectrum such as food and services company to see if our five-step plan would perform and push deeper the investigation to see if we have a clear pattern or not. Another fascinating investigation would be the impact as a natural disaster on the Covid-19 once it has settled and seen the changes organisations had to go through to survive and adapt from it. Investigating the subject of this thesis at a deeper level is another possible further research. One example is a shifted focus from actions in a post-disaster environment into a more in-depth focus on organisational structure and how a natural disaster can shake and modify the organigram of the organisation and the impact left after the disaster.
32
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