Unmastered Risks : From Crisis to Catastrophe: An Economic and Management Insight

In contrast to sociology, economics, and above all, business economics has not yet discovered disaster management as a research topic even though this subject affects many areas of economics due to its interdisciplinary character. The enormous economic losses suffered by private parties, businesses and public institutions in crisis events, the huge amounts of money which are spent in disaster prevention, as well as the challenges that providing emergency management and disaster control present, contain many issues and have an increasing social and economic relevance. This article takes a close look at the concept of disaster from an economic and management point of view to mitigate the impact on human beings and environment. Based on the rational choice approach the study analyzes the state of preparedness that is mainly responsible for good or poor disaster prevention and presents a theoretical framework for a comprehensive disaster management including examples of practical applications. The conclusion outlines several important areas of future research in business economics