Torben Juul Andersen receives a prestigious research grant from DFF

The project will investigate why some organizations (a small fraction) are able to adjust and thrive against adverse odds whereas many others (most of them) seem to falter and fail.  The global economy and the organizations that operate in it to provide goods and services for societal welfare are exposed to a daunting array of risks including financial crisis, cyberattack, political instability, governance failure, and extreme weather effects just to mention a few.  In this context, it is consistently observed that (only) a few firms can outperform their industry peers and display favorable risk-return outcomes whereas a vast number of firms are contained in an extreme left-skewed tail of poor returns. This highly systematic phenomenon of extreme negative outcomes across industries is typically overlooked in mainstream management research but is likely to reveal new important insights. By studying this phenomenon, we will try to understand how organizations can adapt and persevere in a turbulent and uncertain world, which is a major and timely management challenge.

It is a three-year project scheduled from January 2019 to December 2021.