Affiliation:
1. University of Bergamo Bergamo Italy
2. Nottingham Trent University Nottingham UK
3. Aix‐Marseille Université Aix‐en‐Provence CEDEX France
4. German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer Speyer Germany
5. Department of Public and Nonprofit Management University of Freiburg Freiburg Germany
6. Essex Business School University of Essex Colchester UK
7. Department of Management University of Bologna Bologna Italy
Abstract
AbstractRecent years have shown that strategic responses to crises by local governments (LGs) depend on the type of crisis, the institutional environment, but also internal capacities and sensemaking processes. However, such relationships have not been tested widely yet. Based on a survey of managers (n = 590) from cities with more than 15,000 inhabitants in France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom, this study explores the role played by specific organizational capacities (critical thinking, bricolage, and financial capacities) and crisis perceptions (valence—i.e., threat vs. opportunity; and controllability) in shaping adaptive or regressive response strategies. Results show that these capacities are associated with how LGs' managers perceive crises and the type of responses adopted. Higher financial capacity, bricolage, and critical thinking are associated with stronger sense of organizational controllability, but they have different relationships with threat and opportunity perceptions. The study confirms the importance of distinguishing valence (threat and opportunity) from controllability perceptions.