Turnaround Research: Past Accomplishments and Future Challenges

The modern organization confronts a bewildering array of challenges, including the emergence of global markets, rapid advances in information technology and the evolution of new organizational forms. Many organizations have responded poorly to these challenges and have suffered declining performance. Recovery from decline is necessary if organizations are to remain viable providers of goods and services. Given the importance of performance turnaround to this recovery, the relative lack of academic research on the topic is surprising. The purpose of this volume is to help narrow the gap between the importance of turnaround and the attention devoted to it. Part 1 offers papers that address straightforward and fundamental yet problematic issues, including terminological clarity in turnaround research, and the effects of downsizing on organizations. Part II adds four studies based on various research methods to the relatively limited empirical base on turnaround, with case studies of the world's oldest company, Sweden-based Stora, and of arguably the world's most powerful organization, the United States Army. Part III attempts to shed new light on turnaround by applying important theories and perspectives, such as complexity theory, performance referents, and structuration theory, which have been underutilized in strategy research. Overall, the papers contained in this volume seek to summarize past efforts, introduce new perspectives, and specify future research needs in the study of turnaround.