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ABSTRACT
The role of the private sector in fostering climate action is increasingly evident. Yet, little cross-fertilization between climate adaptation and strategy management literature has taken place. This study explores how strategy management theories focused on the role of business relations help to understand the influence of business networks on the adaptive behaviour of firms. As investigated through the business dynamics operating in Jamaica’s cassava value chain, companies are exposed to a series of trade-offs generated within their business environment. In particular, networks are shown to generate both opportunities and constraints that affect business adaptive behaviour and to be a mechanism to influence and be influenced by others. Two fundamental network-level actions that businesses can foster to increase their adaptive capacity and maintain local economic development can be drawn from this assessment. First, by effectively managing relationships, business can unlock access to valuable resources for adaptation. Second, the dynamic and interdependent nature of business relationships calls for business adaptation efforts to focus on the development of collaborative and joint problem-solving approaches. The relational strategy management view of climate adaptation introduced in this study opens interesting lines of inquiry on factors shaping the adaptation landscape of businesses.
Acknowledgements
This piece of work could not have been completed without the financial support of the U.K. Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC); the support in the field of the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), the Jamaican Rural Agricultural Development Agency (RADA) and Jamaican respondents; and the supervision from Dr Mark Pelling and Dr Frans Berkhout.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Laura Canevari-Luzardo has a Bachelor in Marine Science from the University of Queensland and an MSc in Environmental Change and Management from Oxford University and is currently pursuing a PhD in the Department of Geography at King´s College London. For the past 10 years she has dedicated her academic and professional career to tackling climate change issues in small developing island states. Her current research focuses on understanding how business network environments influence the adaptive behaviour of small firms in agricultural value chains in Jamaica and seeks to operationalize the use of network analysis for the formulation of national adaptation strategies in the agriculture sector. In conjunction with her PhD, Laura works at Acclimatise, a climate risk management consulting firm based in the UK. As business development and market analyst associate at Acclimatise, Laura’s main objective is to align the company’s climate services to the needs of clients, in particular financial institutions (commercial, development banks and investors primarily). Prior to joining Acclimatise, Laura worked for the Australia National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, the South East Queensland Climate Adaptation Research Initiative, the French Red Cross and the Inter- American Development Bank in different capacities and roles. She is bilingual in Spanish and Italian, fluent in English, speaks advanced level of French and basic level of Russian and Portuguese.
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
1 USD$1.02bn according to 31st of January 2008 exchange rate: 1USD = JAM$71.00.
2 Jamaica’s GDP in 2016 was $16.05BN. See full government statement at: http://jis.gov.jm/statement-drought-conditions-impact-agricultural-sector/.
3 The NIC is a government-owned entity that currently sits under the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation. The entity is subsidised through Government funds with the mandate to manage a total of 11 irrigation systems across the country and to provide water to farmers.
4 The NWC is the national authority with the mandate of supplying water for residential and commercial purposes.
