Determinants Of Business Disaster Preparedness In Two U.S. Metropolitan Areas

Although there has been a proliferation of "how to" planning guidesin recent years, there has been very little documentation of thevariation in and determinants of business disaster preparedness.The few studies that have been conducted have focused on specificfirms or industrial sectors, such as the chemical or touristindustry, or have been plagued by too few cases. These problemsclearly limit the generalizability of the research findings. Thispaper attempts to fill a void in the literature by exploring thedeterminants and variation of planning within the private sectorutilizing two stratified random samples of businesses fromMemphis/Shelby County, Tennessee (N=737), and Des Moines/PolkCounty, Iowa (N=1079). Findings show that business size, whetherthe business property is owned or leased, and prior disasterexperience are all related to business disaster preparedness inboth study areas. Type of business was related to preparednessamong businesses in Mernphis/Shelby County. Policy implications ofthe findings are discussed.