Climate change and business planning: solutions to keep disruptions at bay

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrative approach to help firms across multiple industries ensure operational continuity and manage ongoing climate-change related disruptions. It provides an implementation model that would first, help firms recognize this as an issue and second, start incorporating certain practices in their decision-making processes. Design/methodology/approach The analytical framework in this paper is based on the strategic management’s resource-based view. According to this view, certain resources provide sustainable competitive advantages because they score high on the following four dimensions: valuable, rare, inimitable and organized to exploit. This paper introduces a fifth dimension – the climate change resilience of the resource. Resources that are not always obvious choices for providing competitive advantages – air, freshwater, workspaces and customers – are evaluated. Each resource is analyzed through the perspective of two disparate industries. Findings This paper highlights to two important findings. First, resources that are rarely considered as providing competitive advantage can become important when the authors add the fifth dimension – climate change resilience. Second, location choices are critical to ensuring climate change resilience. When firms are location constrained, a contingency plan needs to be in place. These contingency plans could range from redesigning physical assets to redesigning human resources practices. Originality/value This paper illustrates the need and the utility of climate change resilience when assessing the sustainable competitive advantage of a resource. Using the above findings, this paper develops a model for implementing a location-based strategy, which firms in any industry could adopt to ensure the climate change resilience of their resources.