Record Details

Exploring the critical incident technique to inform distress causality and sensemaking

Acta Commercii

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Exploring the critical incident technique to inform distress causality and sensemaking
 
Creator Jombe, Melody K. Pretorius, Marius
 
Subject Management distress sense making; business rescue; critical incident technique; causality; insolvency; signalling theory.
Description Orientation: Before a business in distress can be turned around, it requires the accurate identification of the distress causality. Recognition and sensemaking of distress remains a significant factor to inform actions.Research purpose: This study investigated and explored the application of the critical incident technique (CIT) to inform venture distress causality for sensemaking.Motivation of the study: Often decision makers are faced with causal ambiguity and rationalism when attributing distress causality. Critical incident technique method has been extensively applied in health sciences as a diagnostic decision-making process to investigate causality. This study applied CIT method as a diagnostic tool to inform causality and origin of business venture distress.Research design, approach and method: A qualitative study was conducted with a total of 25 participants who included business rescue practitioners (BRPs), creditors and managers. The data were collected through both semi-structured interviews and a card sorting activity. Thematic analysis indicated the core incidents.Main findings: The application of CIT method in causal attribution revealed a range of causes, distress origin and severity indicators of distressed ventures and the force that impels and propels management to act when faced with distress situations.Practical/managerial implications: Understanding distress causality and its associated origin is the first step for a successful turnaround. Management always faces challenges, critical incidents and crises that they fail to understand. Critical incident technique method may assist decision making.Contribution/value-adds: The study introduces CIT method to venture distress context, offering valuable insights into how decision makers can successfully attribute distress causality.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2025-05-09
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Interviews, Card sorting
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ac.v25i1.1312
 
Source Acta Commercii; Vol 25, No 1 (2025); 12 pages 1684-1999 2413-1903
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://actacommercii.co.za/index.php/acta/article/view/1312/2619 https://actacommercii.co.za/index.php/acta/article/view/1312/2620 https://actacommercii.co.za/index.php/acta/article/view/1312/2621 https://actacommercii.co.za/index.php/acta/article/view/1312/2622
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2025 Melody K. Jombe, Marius Pretorius https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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