Firm Security Orientation: Strategically Responding to an Increasingly Disruptive World

Abstract

Severe data breaches and cyber-attacks have heightened the salience of security issues facing firms as well as their suppliers, alliance partners, and customers. However, cyber-security is simply one of the many security challenges large firms face in pursuing growth while simultaneously forestalling attacks upon physical assets, intellectual property, supply chains, resources, employees, and customers. Paradoxically, precise strategic levers critical for firm growth – alliances, open innovation, emerging markets, cloud-based big data solutions, and others – are drivers of heightened security threats. Thus, security management issues have taken center stage in efforts to develop strategic responses to a disruptive world, especially as firms attempt to manage their growth objectives within an increasing complex threat environment. To frame these issues for strategy research, we propose and test a novel construct we have labeled “Firm Security Orientation” to assess firms’ ability and willingness to navigate growth-threat paradoxes.