Responding to information asymmetry in crisis situations: Innovation in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic

Phillips, Wendy; Roehrich, Jens K.; Kapletia, Dharm

Abstract

Crises test the resilience of public service organizations. Healthcare providers must respond and innovate within tight constraints to address challenges. Presenting COVID-19 as a knowable unknown (black swan event), we adopt information processing theory to investigate how healthcare providers and their suppliers address information asymmetry to support decision-making. Building on primary and secondary datasets, we demonstrate managers were innovating internal structural responses. For black swan events, in-house ‘intelligent clients’ are intrinsic not only in managing information uncertainty associated with early stages of the crisis, but also in addressing information equivocality and joint decision-making with other organizations associated with implementing solutions.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 21, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Aug 6, 2021
• Publication Date: 2023-01
• Deposit Date: Aug 19, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 19, 2021
• Journal: Public Management Review
• Print ISSN: 1471-9037
• Electronic ISSN: 1471-9045
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 25
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 175-198
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2021.1960737
• Keywords: Management of Technology and Innovation; Management Information Systems
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/7604768
• Additional Information: Peer Review Statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope.; Aim & Scope: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=rpxm20; Published: 2021-08-06