Table 3.
Thematic Summary and Coding Results (Utilization of Dynamic Capabilities for Resilience Building).
| Crisis management stages | Resilience indicators | Open and axial coding | Dynamic capability typology | Example direct quotes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crisis Preparation (pre-crisis stage) | Network & Relationship | Information and Knowledge | Leveraging knowledge from previous experience | Replicating DC | Nobody was prepared. But US-Bangla airlines had gathered experiences to face any disaster or crisis management…Since we had overcome those situations, our previous experiences would help us to move forward to the future. (Interview #21) |
| Change Ready | Proactive posture | Contingency plans making | Integrating DC | We took the precautions in operation as people were coming from China. It was early-January or mid-January when Covid was not even found in Bangladesh. We used to measure the temperature of our guests, kept a log, and monitored them with our house doctor if they had a temperature. We had hand sanitizer at every entry point of our hotel. So, we had our preparation in. (Interview #02) | |
| Planning strategies | Reorganizing products | Integrating DC | |||
| *No Preparation | Out of control in business crisis preparation | N/A | I think people can’t prepare for that sort of crisis. You can take preparations for flooding, storms etc. But preparing for not earning money month after month is not possible. None of us experienced this type of crisis before. (Interview #11) | ||
| No expectation of the worldwide spread and magnitude | N/A | We were unsure if this virus may affect our country. So that is why we did not take any constructive steps against this initially. This was truly an unexpected scenario for us. (Interview #01) | |||
| No expectation on long time impacts | N/A | We consider these calamities may affect us for 40-45 days at best. So, COVID-19 has a bigger impact than our assumption, and therefore we are a bit tense for our further steps. (Interview #29) | |||
| Crisis Mitigation (short-term response stage) | Leadership & Culture | Leadership | Cost-balancing | Reconfiguring DC | Office rent has been managed by negotiating with the landlord. Considering the current pandemic, those of us who are at the chairman level are refraining from taking salaries for our business. (Interview #12) |
| Forward planning | Creating DC | After the opening we should sit and find out what is our payroll, how much the overhead cost is. We should sit together with our CFO and find out how much money is required to survive in a month. (Interview #02) | |||
| Staff engagement and involvement | Staff remote connection | Reconfiguring DC | We are conducting all our meetings online. We also had to go through numerous adaptations. (Interview #13) | ||
| Staff social and mental support | Reconfiguring DC | We are conducting some CSR activities like creating funds for labor and mid-level employees who are not getting salary. We are trying to boost them up mentally as well. (Interview #08) | |||
| Staff online training | Developing DC | We also suggest all our employees to take online training officially in their free time. Thus, they can develop themself. (Interview #01) | |||
| Decision making | Emergency team development | Creating DC | We formed an emergency team of 19 people. Those will stay at the hotel and look after the hotel until the situation gets normal. (Interview #22) | ||
| Networks & Relationship | Internal resources | Product adaptation | Reconfiguring DC | As people are free at home, we sell the frozen food. We see whether it attracts people. (Interview #11) | |
| Staff retention and loyalty | Reconfiguring DC | The employees will be kept based on their efficiency, loyalty and their importance to the organization. (Interview #04) | |||
| Change Ready | External resources | Customer relationship maintenance | Reconfiguring DC | My sales and marketing knocked door to door and communicated with the clients differently. Now we are communicating with them through electronic media like WhatsApp, we are boosting up many things with them about awareness. (Interview #23) | |
| Coordination and communication across partnerships | Assimilating DC | To fix our problems, we are working together. Businesses that are associated with us are doing jobs for everyone’s betterment. Without coordination nothing can be possible. (Interview #20) | |||
| Employment fundings | Assimilating DC | Our prime concern should be the betterment of our employees. All the decisions will be taken based on Govt. and NGOs funds. Funding resources may help us to fight against this situation. (Interview #01) | |||
| Recovery priorities | Operational costs reduction | Reconfiguring DC | I am reducing the numbers of employees in my organization. We are shifting to a small office. Thinking of cutting the overall cost down. (Interview #09) | ||
| Revenue maintaining | Reconfiguring DC | We don’t know what will happen tomorrow. We have to ensure that we are getting the basic revenue so that we don’t have to touch our savings. (Interview #04) | |||
| Domestic market adaptation | Reconfiguring DC | Five-star hotels focus on the foreign nationalities. But my idea will be to bring more Bangladeshi people to our hotel. Up until a vaccine is coming, international travelling will not revive. (Interview #05) | |||
| Health monitoring system | Creating DC | There are many more things to think about now, including regular and proper cleanliness, keeping staff health issues in mind which is also costly. (Interview #10) | |||
| Planning strategy | New partnership | Developing DC | We got permission from the government to operate cargo flights. So, we were able to operate a non-schedule cargo flight from Dhaka to Bangkok the other day. We had another cargo flight to Kolkata several days before. (Interview #21) | ||
| New products and market shift | Creating DC | Currently the biggest concern is safety, now we need to adapt this in our food preparation. Suppose the way I package my food is completely contactless, this could be a marketing tactic. (Interview #05) | |||
| Regular routine updates | Reconfiguring DC | We updated the major operation routine in our kitchen to control the quality. For example, wearing gloves for delivery drivers, ensuring the food are double-checked. (Interview #05) | |||
| Technology reliance for less human interaction | Assimilating DC | Now we do non-cash transactions. Payment is made through Food Panda-our biggest stakeholder. We are also considering the idea of home delivery. (Interview #11) | |||
| Crisis Adaptation (future long-term recovery stage) | Leadership & Culture | Staff engagement and involvement | Human resources development | Renewing DC | We are doing some personal development, professional development. (Interview #10) |
| Staff empowerment | Adaptive DC | We usually discuss openly with the staff when making a decision so that they too can participate in our decision making. They worked with the utmost sincerity because they consider the organization as their own. (Interview #26) | |||
| Situation monitoring and reporting | Safety information building | Regenerative DC | From the very beginning, safety information were communicated in different social media and internet. The government has also provided many instructions on health safety information on COVID-19. (Interview #30) | ||
| Innovation and creativity | Humanity service | Innovative DC | Some of the services that we are rendering now is offering/arranging transportation/logistic services to foreign nationals who are stuck in Bangladesh. We are connecting them with different embassies and connecting with different chartered airlines so that they can go to their own country. We are doing this only for the sake of humanity (Interview #12) | ||
| Networks & Relationship | Minimization of Silos | Negotiating financial issues | Renewing DC | To reduce our expenditure, we have talked with our property owner to curtail the monthly rent. I tried to renegotiate with all my vendors as well. Also, to face government policies, I am working with several associations. (Interview #20) | |
| Change Ready | External resources | B2B partnership building | Regenerative DC | We grow our business based on collaboration with other companies. There are 10-15 companies that give our 60% revenue. We are already in connection and contact with them. (Interview #17) | |
| B2C communication and relationship building | Adaptive DC | My team is also thinking about our business model and plan. If such software can be developed, one-to-one communication with the customer can be done through it, and the customer can be communicated more effectively. (Interview #10) | |||
| Recovery priorities | Meeting COVID rules for new normal | Adaptive DC | We have to take requisite hygienic and sanitation measures. As a boutique hotel we always provide our customers personalized service, socializing with them, but now we hardly get to see our customers. In consequence our service pattern is changing. (Interview #30) | ||
| Prioritizing customer satisfaction to survive | Adaptive DC | We will invest more to make our food quality even better. Instant cooking and serving, delivering immediately, answering all the queries instantly, these are the things we will focus on to rebuild our relationship with the customers. (Interview #05) | |||
| Planning strategies | Brand equity reinforcement | Renewing DC | Due to COVID, the other customer segment would also shrink and we need to figure out the changed market size. Keeping this in mind we will have to bring back the confidence of our customer by bagging the reputation of our brand. (Interview #27) | ||
| Learning and product development | Renewing DC | We are learning to work with product development and new product ideas. Now it’s time for us to rethink the products we’ve never looked at before. (Interview #16) | |||
| Domestic market promotion | Adaptive DC | We are changing the composition of target market. We have seen that the Dhaka market campaign does not go well in the Chittagong market. Our main strategy now will be to set the domestic market. (Interview #10) | |||
| Service pattern (routines) updates for future events | Adaptive DC | A proper SOP should be implemented. Every owner of a hotel should abide by these SOPs. A central committee should take place to monitor all these activities. We have to look forward to circulating all the businesses that are interlinked with hotel management. (Interview #20) | |||
| *No planning (waiting for change) | N/A | We have not set any strategies, because until now we cannot understand what the condition would be after one month. But primarily we have started working out since the vaccine is coming out. (Interview #17) | |||