Abstract:

Firms at the center of industrial catastrophes can cause great harm to their communities and themselves. Despite the strategic importance for doing so, current theories offer an incomplete understanding of how to reduce the likelihood of industrial catastrophes. In response, this paper develops an interdisciplinary approach to study industrial catastrophes. The approach illuminates how adaptations and normalizations in one subsystem can cause ‘fragility drift’ – the narrowing of a system’s homeostatic range – because of ripple effects in other subsystems. Mitigating fragility drift entails overcoming bounded rationality and opportunism problems that calls for a specific institutional response. Therefore, this paper proposes a ‘probity-based vigilance” structure that can be grafted only other governance structures and provides a comparatives assessment it ability prevent fragility drift and hence attenuate the likelihood of industrial catastrophes. ​

General information:

Attendance to this seminar is possible by invitation only. Please send an e-mail to secbs-abs@uva.nl if your are interested in attending this seminar.