Climate change and business planning : solutions to keep disruptions at bay

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrative approach to help firms across multiple industries ensure operational continuity and manage ongoing climate-change related disruptions. It provides an implementation model that would first, help firms recognize this as an issue and second, start incorporating certain practices in their decision-making processes. Design/methodology/approach: The analytical framework in this paper is based on the strategic management’s resource-based view. According to this view, certain resources provide sustainable competitive advantages because they score high on the following four dimensions: valuable, rare, inimitable and organized to exploit. This paper introduces a fifth dimension – the climate change resilience of the resource. Resources that are not always obvious choices for providing competitive advantages – air, freshwater, workspaces and customers – are evaluated. Each resource is analyzed through the perspective of two disparate industries. Findings: This paper highlights to two important findings. First, resources that are rarely considered as providing competitive advantage can become important when the authors add the fifth dimension – climate change resilience. Second, location choices are critical to ensuring climate change resilience. When firms are location constrained, a contingency plan needs to be in place. These contingency plans could range from redesigning physical assets to redesigning human resources practices. Originality/value: This paper illustrates the need and the utility of climate change resilience when assessing the sustainable competitive advantage of a resource. Using the above findings, this paper develops a model for implementing a location-based strategy, which firms in any industry could adopt to ensure the climate change resilience of their resources.