How do firms perceive and response to natural disasters? The occurrence and severity of natural disasters have been increasing over time in past several decades. Word Bank (2016) estimated that the cost of natural disasters worldwide could reach US$314 billion annually by 2030 from $250 billion now. Because most of the critical infrastructure is owned by the private sector, business vulnerability is the vulnerability of society. While managers rated natural disasters as one of their top threats making negative impacts on their organizations (PwC, 2013), no systematic survey for the private sector has been conducted by academics as well as by practitioners. The presentation will show the initial findings from a survey conducted in Asia, North America, and South America. The findings will provide implications to managers that how they need to prepare and respond against the risk of natural disasters.

Dr. Oh is Professor of International Business at the Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University. He was the Inaugural Alan Rugman Visiting Fellow in Henley Business School, University of Reading for 2015/2016. Before he joined academics, he worked for Samsung Electronics and Samsung Corporation as a marketing manager at their headquarters. He served his military service as an instructor, first lieutenant ROTC, in South Korea. His research centers on internationalization strategy, business continuity, and globalization versus regionalization. He also proceeds to interdisciplinary works and bridges between business and economics and between business and political science. He has published more than 40 articles in peer reviewed journals in business, economics, and political science, and his works appear in leading journals such as Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, and Global Environmental Change. He is Co-Editor of Multinational Business Review starting September 2016. He also serves for Journal of International Business Studies and International Journal of Multinational Corporation Strategy as a capacity of editorial board member. He is a Canadian Representative and board member of European International Business Academy since 2012.