Keywords

Business Continuity Management (BCM), Jordan Design and Development Bureau (JODDB), Entrepreneurial Alertness, Strategic Agility

Introduction

 Business Continuity Management (BCM) is risk management, designed to address any threat or risk and disruption to the business process, activities, and procedural task of the business (Kato & Charoenrat, 2018). Business Continuity Management (BCM) includes the business continuity planning to ensure a proper and better response in case of any risk or threat and further gives the ability to recover from such threats as efficiently as possible (Järveläinen, 2020).

The three phases included in Business Continuity Management (BCM) are planning and prevention - resolve, disaster response - respond, return to normal – rebuild (Zeng & Zio, 2017). On the other hand, Strategic Agility is the ability by which an organization works around changes proactively to ensure the adaptable and flexible response to market conditional and changes (Shams et al., 2021). It also ensures an upper hand or superiority over the competition by adjusting and swiftly adapting to new ideas and innovation. It ensures the firm is robust to act swiftly and fluidly in any given circumstance of business phase and operation (Ahammad et al., 2020). Their definition by itself marks that how Strategic Agility in Business can impact Business Continuity Management (BCM). Entrepreneurial alertness helps the organization or the person to understand and perceive the opportunities and further pursue the greater good (Tang et al., 2021). Entrepreneurial Alertness helps in carving out the market or the sector’s need after observing the lack of it and then further developing Business Continuity Management (BCM) through the strategic agility process (Neneh, 2019).

This study is an applied study in JODDB. This study identified the impact of strategic agility on the Business Continuity Management (BCM) of JODDB while the role played by the entrepreneurial alertness in the mix. This study will have a clear objective and then literature reviews from the various other research and pre-existing information. The methodology will include how the overall process helped in the study with the findings and discussion followed by the concluding remarks.

The Objective of Study

This research studies the impact of the Strategic Agility on Business Continuity Management (BCM) in Jordan Design and Development Bureau (JODDB) by indicating the mediating role of Entrepreneurial Alertness. The study targeted five job titles general manager, general manager, deputy, general manager assistant, director of the department, or head of the department of the targeted employees. Through this study, the efficacy of the entrepreneurial alertness role will be observed. It answers the question what is the Impact of Strategic Agility on business continuity management on Jordan Design and Development Bureau (JODDB), with Entrepreneurial Alertness?

Literature Review 

For any business with a change in the process and innovation, including technological advancement, it becomes crucial to manage the business continuity and its various aspects in an enterprising business atmosphere (Kim & Amran, 2018). It is about paying attention to every element of the business and reinventing wherever required and whenever needed. If it is not done with today's time, it sure goes to the ruins. To run a successful business, the customer must know that their information or data is protected and would not be misused by the company or any individual (Charoenthammachoke et al., 2020). There has been an extensive evolution of Business Continuity Management (BCM) over the period as per the needs of the business and any other societal and environmental turbulence.

Somewhere in the 1960’s the US banks adopted the Disaster Recovery plan, where they started keeping a backup of all the critical information to protect the data and from getting lost rather than the whole tangible and intangible elements of the organization (Corrales-Estrada et al., 2021). Then by the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was a shift in the vision of the organization. Instead of the Disaster Recovery Plan, Business Continuity Plan was reinforced where the goal was to protect all the critical elements of the organization and not just the data. And from the late 1990s till the current time, the Business Continuity Management (BCM) approach is to protect internal-external services, which are critical in the organization (Miller & Engemann, 2019).

Business Continuity Management (BCM) is where the potential risk is managed in a way to address the threat and or unwanted disruption to the business. It includes the plan to ensure a proper and better response in case of any risk or threat and further gives the ability to recover from threats efficiently (Singh & Jain, 2021). As discussed by Hadawy, et al., (2021), Business Continuity Management (BCM) includes many processes, which include testing, training, updating for the successful planning of Business Continuity Management (BCM). To better comprehend Business Continuity Management (BCM) it succession factors should be studied and known, like, project management, technology, maintenance, management commitment, the readiness of the organization, and the competency of an individual (Hijjawi & Al-Shawabkeh, 2017). Adequate support of management in terms of employing better, skillful, qualified people ensure better Business Continuity Management (BCM). At the division level of risk management and assessment, the risk is identified and determined for further action, which helps in better Business Continuity Management (BCM) (Lungu, 2020).

Through Business Impact analysis further, identification of business process are done which may become the reason of the disaster in the business and then further recovery process is planned and formulated, which is one of the processes in strengthening the Business Continuity Management (BCM). Business recovery strategy focuses on the downtime of an organization where it is willing to sacrifice and tolerate (Karuppiah et al., 2021). Further, the education of the Business Continuity Plan is a must. People should be trained, made aware of the Business Continuity Plan for better Business Continuity Management (BCM). The Business Continuity Management (BCM), as per researchers, and experts can be subcategorized into support of the management, mitigation, and risk analysis. Business impact analyses, continuity strategy awareness, training, maintenance, and recovery (Patel, 2019).

In the advanced era, the business is growing, and the rapid technological advancements have made consumers want more innovation and comfort, which means the strategies from the old and traditional times, would not fit in the current times. Therefore significant improvement and change are needed on the strategic level to combat and size the competitive market (Kale et al., 2019). The agility of the business becomes crucial in this time and era. There are various definitions of agility. A business can adapt and adjust the core business strategy in response to environmental changes or technological changes (Cokins, 2017).

Agility is the capability to remain effective by the knowledge management and swift response to turbulence while focusing on the launch of new product timing, reconfiguration of organizational process, etc. (Teixeira & Junior, 2019). Strategic Agility revolves around customer agility, operational agility, and partnering agility. The ability of the organization to reinvent through customer feedback is customer agility (Cunha et al., 2020). Operational agility exploits the potential opportunities with supply chain agility (Doz, 2020). The ability of the organization to exploit opportunities and build through supply, customer support, logistics, and manufacturing is Partnering agility (Clauss et al., 2019). For strategic agility, it is important that the focus is on customer agility, operation, and or internal agility, and partnering agility (Xing et al., 2020).

Entrepreneurial alertness is the ability to pick and sense the opportunity which nobody did and thereby building a business. This is the first crucial step onwards the succession of the business (Campos, 2017). The Entrepreneurial skill is not bought, it cannot be hired, and there is no demand and supply of such skill while it is costless. Entrepreneurial alertness is included a lot of aspects, and paying attention to something around the corner is the biggest of its them all. It is an alert state of mind, being a continuous on-call alert state (Bilal & Fatima, 2021).

These elements, which are strategic agility and entrepreneurial alertness, are interrelated. Once the crucial step of fining or sensing the opportunity is done and steps are taken the further process of framework and setup starts (Mole et al., 2019). During the step, agility comes into being while Business Continuity Management (BCM) is put in place (Fatima & Bilal, 2020). Any organization lacking the strategic agility which involves customer agility, internal agility of operation, and further partnering agility which is formed with the other external factors for supply, customer care, manufacture, etc., will oversee a stunted growth (Crespo et al., 2021).

Methodology

In this study, sampling of the population was done to find answers to the research questions. Convenience sampling was done. The five job titles that were studied are already mentioned. The study was a mixed-method study with quantitative and qualitative research. For quantitative research, the questionnaires were answered by one hundred forty participants, and then further interviews were taken with five different people of five different job titles of the company Jordan Design and Development Bureau (JODDB).

This methodology helped to get the primary data through the first-hand source, which were put in the graphical representation and thereby compared and analyzed.

Findings and Discussion 

Population Sample

The population sample consists of people in the designation of general manager, general manager, deputy, general manager assistant, director of the department, or head of the department of the employees in the company JODDB.

Reliability Test

Table 1 shows the reliability coefficient. This test shows that this data is suitable as coefficient as it is error-free.

Table 1 Cronbach’s Alpha
Variables	Number of Elements	Cronbach’s score
Agility options (Strategic)	19	0.915
Customer related	7	0.897
Operations related	6	0.871
Partnering	6	0.762
Business Continuity Management (BCM)	26	0.956
Supporting the management	9	0.857
Assessing and mitigating risks	9	0.87
BIA	6	0.87
Strategy to continue	6	0.87
Plan knowledge and testing	6	0.910
Entrepreneurial alertness	2	0.834
Total	47	0.97

The data is presented in the form of a chart here.

Data Analysis: Demographic variables are the respondent profile shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Study Variables
No	Aspect	Category	Frequency	%
1	Gender	Male	97	70.5
		Female	43	29.5
2	Age	Thirty or less	25	18
		30-40 years	45	33.5
		40 to 50 years	30	20
		50 years plus	40	27.5
3	Qualification	Short course	20	13
		Graduate	115	85
		Post-graduate	5	2
4	Work Experience	Less than five years	15	12%
		5-10 years	70	52%
		10 to 15	35	24%
		15 years+	20	12%

Table 2: Distribution of sample as per demographic variable, n=140.

Table 2 represents the demographic variables like gender, qualification, age, and work experience. Figure 2 and Figure 3 visually present the same data. As per Table 2, males form around 70% of the population within the age category 30 to 40 years which are around 34% of the sample population. Their academic qualification is majorly bachelors with the percentage of 80 to 85% and work experience of five to ten years forming around 70% of the sample population.

Analysis of Study Variables

The descriptive statistics of the construct are shown in Table 3. All mean were above average 2.5 points while all the variables were categorized as high.

Table 3 Analysis of The Study Variables
Variable	N	Mean	Std. Dev.	Rank (High -= H)
Agility options (Strategic)	140	3.90	0.575	H
Operations	140	3.847	0.632	H
Partnering	140	3.90	0.743	H
Business Continuity Management (BCM)	140	3.849	0.590	H
Supporting the management	140	3.70	0.780	H
Assessing and mitigating risks	140	3.87	0.641	H
BIA	140	3.89	0.665	H
Recovery and continuity strategy	140	3.91	0.657	H
Plan knowledge and maintenance	140	3.80	0.635	H
Entrepreneurial Alertness	140	3.91	0.641	H

Table 3 represents that majority of population shows positive responses towards the variable taken in the research model. The table shows the significance and the rank of each element or variable.

Semi Structures Interview

Semi-structured interviews were asked from the five respondents who are basically at the senior management in the position of general manager, general manager, deputy, general manager assistant, director of the department, or head of the department of the employees.

In your department, do you consider customer feedback, and if yes, then based on the data collected, any changes are done in the system or process which benefit the overall Business Continuity Management? How about the partnership agility or operations?

Respondent 1 agreed to the customer feedback being cindered as a make or break in the performance. Respondent 2 was aligned towards the customer feedback significance and added it adds to the agility of the overall process, still the partner process is crucial for the business, especially during the manufacturing phase in Jordon Manufacturing and Service Solutions (JMSS) in Jordan Design and Development Bureau (JODDB). Respondents 3 & 4 were explained the overall process of data collected post-sales, but many times, the relevance is diluted due to no reporting of the event and added training and recovery are where the team should focus more, and Respondent 5 said that customer feedback is a must and therefore it is mandatory in our organization to be on top of it.

1. Do you have a Risk Assessment and mitigation department? If Yes, What does their work entail?

All five respondents agreed in unanimous ‘yes’ and further mentioned that this division thoroughly analyzes the potential risk not only the data but the critical operation across the organization and works on the consequences of such threats if executed. This helps us to work on plan B of response and recovery. Respondent 2 added that focusing on operations in a company like Jordan Design and Development Bureau (JODDB) is crucial.

2. How about the Business Impact Analysis -BIA? What do they do?

All five respondents mentioned that Business Impact analysis work on the process and their impact on the overall business, which may cause a lot of turbulence or damage to the business.

3. Do you think at any given point of time in your work entrepreneurial alertness paved the way for better growth and better Business Continuity Management?

Yes, said respondents 1&2. Both are senior-level employees, and one of the last years figured out the opportunity in the automation market is sending, which was further analyzed and explored and then was later included in the company as a tool for better work and swift planning. Respondents 3, 4 & 5 agreed with respondent 1 & 2 and added it is important for employees or people in the organization to have entrepreneurial alertness as it gives the competitive advantage in the market. They further added that operational agility in the company makes it more robust as it works around the supply chain management during all times of certainty and uncertainty.

Through the semi-structured interviews and the survey/questionnaire, it is derived that the impact of strategic agility on Business Continuity Management (BCM) on Jordan Design and Development Bureau (JODDB), with entrepreneurial alertness is high or huge. With mean in table 3 was above the mid-point of 2.5.

Discussion

Companies that are into the service sector and production at large need to have business continuity at constant evolution because the customer need and country environment changes and remain unstable (Aleksandrova et al., 2018). After studying, it was shown that the impact of strategic agility on Business Continuity Management (BCM) on Jordan Design and Development Bureau (JODDB) with entrepreneurial alertness is crucial. It was also seen that operational agility in such a sector is of the essence while the risk and mitigation need to be on toes.

This study offers significant insights while opening the significance of strategic agility, which can affect Business Continuity Management (BCM) in the presence of entrepreneurial management. It further shows the significance of values and elements or variables involved where operation agility and customer agility are of the foremost priority. While risk assessment and mitigation leads and business impact analysis lead to saving face and preparing is important for the staff to be trained regularly to be ready for the response.

Conclusion

This study research the impact of strategic agility on Business Continuity Management (BCM) with entrepreneurial alertness in Jordan Design and Development Bureau (JODDB). It is found that with the many challenges which the company Jordan Design and Development Bureau (JODDB) is going through or goes through regularly, which includes huge technological investment, up-gradation of human skills, and training if the resource for better response and operation, the findings of the entrepreneurial alertness being should be more significantly present within the system as this will allow the management to better connect with the operation and partners and the custodians of the brand which is in this case employees and customers. This will help the company to survive and sustain itself in the market with a strategic edge and advantage.

Recommendation

This research study is one step in finding the factors which can affect the Business Continuity Management (BCM) with entrepreneurial alertness and agility at Jordan Design and Development Bureau (JODDB). Further research studies can be done taking the similar path but with different variables. Also, another sector or company and work with a mix of same and different variables can be considered to find the precise picture of the overall market conditions and the impact of the variable or elements in the Business Continuity Management (BCM).

References

Ahammad, M.F., Glaister, K.W., & Gomes, E. (2020). Strategic agility and human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 30(1), 100700.

Crossref , Google scholar

Aleksandrova, S.V., Aleksandrov, M.N., & Vasiliev, V.A. (2018). Business continuity management system. In 2018 IEEE International Conference" Quality Management, Transport and Information Security, Information Technologies"(IT&QM&IS), 14-17. IEEE.

Crossref , Google scholar

Bilal, A.R., & Fatima, T. (2021). Disentangling the individual entrepreneurial orientation and SMEs success nexus: An action-based interplay of exploration activities and entrepreneurial alertness. Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies.

Crossref , Google scholar

Campos, H.M. (2017). Impact of entrepreneurial passion on entrepreneurial orientation with the mediating role of entrepreneurial alertness for technology-based firms in Mexico. Journal of small business and enterprise development.

Crossref , Google scholar

Charoenthammachoke, K., Leelawat, N., Tang, J., & Kodaka, A. (2020). Business continuity management: A preliminary systematic literature review based on science direct database. Journal of disaster research, 15(5), 546-555.

Crossref , Google scholar

Clauss, T., Abebe, M., Tangpong, C., & Hock, M. (2019). Strategic agility, business model innovation, and firm performance: An empirical investigation. IEEE transactions on engineering management.

Crossref , Google scholar

Cokins, G. (2017). Strategic business management: From planning to performance. John Wiley & Sons.

Crossref , Google scholar

Corrales-Estrada, A.M., Gómez-Santos, L.L., Bernal-Torres, C.A., & Rodriguez-López, J.E. (2021). Sustainability and resilience organizational capabilities to enhance business continuity management: A literature review. Sustainability, 13(15), 8196.

Crossref , Google scholar

Crespo, N.F., Simões, V.C., & Fontes, M. (2021). Uncovering the factors behind new ventures’ international performance: Capabilities, alertness, and technological turbulence. European Management Journal.

Crossref , Google scholar

Doz, Y. (2020). Fostering strategic agility: How individual executives and human resource practices contribute. Human Resource Management Review, 30(1), 100693.

Google scholar

e Cunha, M.P., Gomes, E., Mellahi, K., Miner, A.S., & Rego, A. (2020). Strategic agility through improvisational capabilities: Implications for a paradox-sensitive HRM. Human Resource Management Review, 30(1), 100695.

Crossref , Google scholar

Fatima, T., & Bilal, A.R. (2020). Individual entrepreneurial orientation, access to finance, and SME performance: Fortifying role of entrepreneurial alertness. Abasyn University Journal of Social Sciences, 13(1).

Crossref , Google scholar

Hadawy, S.A., Bakhtiari, H., & Torabi, S.A. (2021). Critical Success Factors (CSFs) of business continuity management: A case study in the Iranian petrochemical industry. Journal of Emergency Management.

Google scholar

Hijjawi, G.S., & Al-Shawabkeh, K.M. (2017). Impact of strategic agility on Business Continuity Management (BCM): The moderating role of entrepreneurial alertness: An applied study in Jordanian insurance companies. International Journal of Business and Management, 12(10), 155-155.

Crossref , Google scholar

Järveläinen, J. (2020). Understanding the stakeholder roles in business continuity management practices–A study in the public sector. In Proceedings of the 53rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

Crossref , Google scholar

Kale, E., Aknar, A., & Ba?ar, Ö. (2019). Absorptive capacity and firm performance: The mediating role of strategic agility. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 78, 276-283.

Crossref , Google scholar

Karuppiah, S.D., Nadzri, E.M., Jayavalan, S., Hanizar, T.A.B.T., Samah, A.H.B.A., & Haris, F.B. (2021). Business continuity management leverages on ICT agility: Employee Self Health Declaration (ESHD). In 2021 IEEE Symposium on Industrial Electronics & Applications (ISIEA), 1-5. IEEE.

Crossref , Google scholar

Kato, M., & Charoenrat, T. (2018). Business continuity management of small and medium-sized enterprises: Evidence from Thailand. International journal of disaster risk reduction, 27, 577-587.

Crossref , Google scholar

Kim, L.L., & Amran, A. (2018). Factors leading to the adoption of Business Continuity Management (BCM) in Malaysia. Global Business and Management Research, 10(1), 179-196.

Google scholar

Lungu, M.F. (2020). The influence of strategic agility on firm performance. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, 14(1), 102-110.

Crossref , Google scholar

Miller, H.E., & Engemann, K.J. (2019). Business continuity management in data center environments. International Journal of Information Technologies and Systems Approach (IJITSA), 12(1), 52-72.

Crossref , Google scholar

Mole, K.F., Adomako, S., Tang, J., & Yu, A. (2019). Entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance: The enabling effect of entrepreneurial alertness. In Academy of Management Proceedings, 1, 11480. Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.

Crossref , Google scholar

Neneh, B.N. (2019). From entrepreneurial alertness to entrepreneurial behavior: The role of trait competitiveness and proactive personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 138, 273-279.

Crossref , Google scholar

Patel, P.C. (2019). Opportunity-related absorptive capacity and entrepreneurial alertness. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 15(1), 63-73.

Crossref , Google scholar

Shams, R., Vrontis, D., Belyaeva, Z., Ferraris, A., & Czinkota, M.R. (2021). Strategic agility in international business: A conceptual framework for “agile” multinationals. Journal of International Management, 27(1), 100737.

Crossref , Google scholar

Singh, A.K., & Jain, A.K. (2021). Business continuity during adversity and strategies to revive certain sectors. International Journal of Sociotechnology and Knowledge Development (IJSKD), 14(2), 17-40.

Crossref , Google scholar

Tang, J., Baron, R.A., & Yu, A. (2021). Entrepreneurial alertness: Exploring its psychological antecedents and effects on firm outcomes. Journal of Small Business Management, 1-30.

Crossref , Google scholar

Teixeira, G.F.G., & Junior, O.C. (2019). How to make strategic planning for corporate sustainability? Journal of Cleaner Production, 230, 1421-1431.

Crossref , Google scholar

Xing, Y., Liu, Y., Boojihawon, D.K., & Tarba, S. (2020). Entrepreneurial team and strategic agility: A conceptual framework and research agenda. Human Resource Management Review, 30(1), 100696.

Crossref , Google scholar

Zeng, Z., & Zio, E. (2017). An integrated modeling framework for quantitative business continuity assessment. Process Safety and Environmental Protection, 106, 76-88.

Crossref , Google scholar

Received: 20-Dec-2021, Manuscript No. JMIDS-21-10573; Editor assigned: 22-Dec-2021, PreQC No. JMIDS-21-10573(PQ); Reviewed: 05-Jan-2021, QC No. JMIDS-21-10573; Revised: 12-Jan-2022, Manuscript No. JMIDS-21-10573(R); Published: 20-Jan-2022