سونا بایرام زاده

The COVID-19 pandemic caused an unprecedented shock to many industries in the world, including food industries. They were forced to make fundamental changes in their business strategies to maintain their survival and competitive position. The identification of these crisis management strategies can be useful for making efficient and effective decisions in the future. Therefore, this study aims to identify crisis management strategies of small businesses active in the food industry in Iran during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is a descriptive-survey mixed-method study. In the qualitative phase, participants were 15 experts who underwent interviews continued until reaching theoretical data saturation. They were selected using a snowball sampling method. In the quantitative phase, participants were 314 supervisors and senior and middle-level managers of organizations active in food production in Iran, who were selected using a cluster random sampling method. They completed a researcher-made questionnaire.

Ten crisis management strategies in three general categories of crisis strategies, survival strategies, and resilience strategies were identified. Crisis strategies included “reduction”, “integration and communication”, and “development and endurance”. Survival strategies were “chasing after competitors”, “infrastructure preparation”, and “strategic planning and orientation”. Resilience strategies were “work-related”, “financial”, “marketing”, and “human resource empowerment” strategies. 

The small businesses active in the food industry in Iran used different crisis, survival and resilience strategies during the pandemic to maintain their activities. Attention to these effective strategies is recommended to properly cope with future crises in the food industry.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of knowledge hiding behaviors on employees' silence and organizational deviant behaviors with the mediating role of psychological contract breach. This research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-surveillance in terms of nature. The statistical population of the current research includes the employees of the large taxpayer’s unit, which consists of 400 people, of which 227 people were determined as a statistical sample by simple random method and power analysis method. In order to collect information, a standard questionnaire was used and the data was analyzed by multivariate analysis based on structural equation modeling with a covariance-based approach in Amos software version 24. The research results show the confirmation of rationalized hiding on defensive silence, evasive hiding on relational silence, rationalized hiding on relational silence, evasive hiding on ineffective silence, rationalized hiding on ineffective silence and defensive silence on organizational deviant behavior, relational silence on organizational deviant behavior and Ineffectual silence on deviant organizational behavior and Also, the results of the mediation analysis show that the construct "psychological contract breach" has a mediating role for all relationships between the dimensions of knowledge-hiding behaviors and the dimensions of silence So that the said mediation process for the causal relationships between "playing dumb" and "defensive silence/ ineffective silence" is complete and partial for the rest of the relationships. In the section of the structural model, among the twenty-one proposed hypotheses, seventeen were confirmed, among which the effect of relational silence on organizational deviant behavior had the highest path coefficient (0.33).

Scenario planning is one of the new methods of strategy formulation in the age of complexity and critical uncertainties; Identifying uncertainties and formulating relevant strategies based on that in high-growth industries is of particular importance, through which organizations are prepared to face the complex environment. In the present study, Schwartz method has been utilized as the main scenario planning method in order to formulate a strategy for a company active in the electronic banking industry.

In order to undertake the steps of Schwartz method, the approach adopted was qualitative approach, and research strategy was content analysis. Accordingly, 12 sessions were held in the form of focus groups, with a total of 315 people-hour allocated, with a group of academic experts and activists in the banking technology industry with a variety of specialties and experience of cooperation with this company.

After categorizing the verbal propositions, an initial list of 13 uncertainties was identified. Then three factors of uncertainties of sanctions (compatible interaction versus incompatible interaction), legislator behavior (mature legislator versus immature legislator) and industry competitors' behavior (cohesive industry versus dispersed industry) were selected as key uncertainties. Based on three selected key uncertainties, eight scenarios (number of key uncertainties to the power of two) were obtained. The eight scenarios with suggested solutions are as follows: The First Scenario: incompatible interactive environment, immature legislator, cohesive industry Suggested Solutions for the First Scenario: • Development of products and services by adopting a partnership strategy in the form of a multilateral consortium with banks, financial and credit institutions and domestic banking IT companies. • Leadership and organization of partnership networks with other industry players. • Increase investment in research and development in the pursuit of new banking technologies. • Reduce the time to provide products and services. The Second Scenario: incompatible interactive environment, immature legislator, dispersed industry Suggested Solutions for the Second Environment: • Increase competitive advantage by investing in research and development. • Increase the necessary preparation and infrastructure to create and lead partnerships with industry actors in order to enter the cohesive environment more rapidly. The Third Scenario: incompatible interactive environment, mature legislator, cohesive industry Suggested solutions for the third environment: • Increase the speed of application of the production capacities of various systems in order to gain a leadership position and organize partnerships. • Agility of the company in order to respond quickly to needs. • Development of innovative products and services. • Pay special attention and respond to the needs of current customers in order to increase their level of satisfaction. The Fourth Scenario: incompatible interactive environment, mature legislator, dispersed industry Suggested Solutions for the Fourth Scenario: • Increase satisfaction and develop relationships with current customers in order to increase the number of orders in the future. • Increase the cost of replacing the company for the customer by completing the service portfolio and providing complementary services. • Increase the necessary preparedness and infrastructure to create and lead partnerships with industry actors. • Identify and enter new domestic non-banking markets. • Reduce the time to provide products and services. The Fifth Scenario: compatible interactive environment, mature legislator, cohesive industry Suggested Solutions for the Fifth Scenario: • Establish partnerships with international banks and financial institutions, especially with reliance on local corporate knowledge. • Making more use of infrastructure facilities and providing local knowledge, especially in the field of Fintech in order to provide distinctive services to banks. • Establish partnerships with domestic competitors to maintain a competitive position. • Providing new financial services on par with the international banking system. The Sixth Scenario: compatible interactive environment, immature legislator, cohesive industry Suggested Solutions for the Sixth Scenario: • Market development by creating international consortia with the presence of companies from the target market, to operate and provide competitive services and products in overseas markets. • Identify capable international companies for cooperation and knowledge transfer in the field of new banking technologies. The Seventh Scenario: compatible interactive environment, mature legislator, dispersed industry Suggested Solutions for the Seventh Scenario: • Willingness to cooperate and interact constructively with other great actors, especially foreign actors. • Focus on current customers and increase their level of satisfaction. • Identify and enter new domestic and foreign markets. The Eighth Scenario: compatible interactive environment, immature legislator, dispersed industry Suggested solutions for the eighth scenario: • Invest in research and development and increase competitiveness (especially in areas where indigenous knowledge is required) • Increase the necessary preparation and infrastructure to create and lead partnerships with domestic and foreign companies.

Scenario 2 (incompatible interactive environment, immature legislator, dispersed industry) can be considered as a pessimistic scenario. This situation should be taken into reconsideration in order to minimize the subsequent losses, especially investment in research and development, increased readiness and building necessary infrastructure to start partnerships and to enter the industry more rapidly. On the other hand, Scenario 5 (compatible interactive environment, mature legislator, cohesive industry) can be considered as an optimistic scenario. In this case, the supply and demand are developed in interaction with each other. In this environment, pursuing internal and external partnerships will remain one of the company's priorities; moreover, paying attention to FinTech (Financial Technology) in order to provide distinctive services would be highly profitable. Particularly with the entry of foreign competitors and their high capacity, taking advantage of local knowledge and proper use of it in the field of FinTech is considered as the fundamental competencies of the company. by examining different scenarios, it is determined that several main axes can be seen in all of these scenarios, and it is suggested that by considering them simultaneously, the company would be more prepared to face different scenarios. These axes are as follows: Create, develop and lead domestic and foreign partnerships Invest in research and development Excel in processes