Political risk assessment: Theory and the experience of Dutch firms

Abstract

This paper examines the political risk assessment strategies of 23 Dutch firms. After a review of how political risk is defined throughout the literature, different assessment methods and management of risk are discussed. We then investigated the importance of various risk elements, the experience and assessment of risk, and the implementation of risk reduction strategies. Results show that the institutionalization of political risk assessment practices is not very high in the Netherlands, and that for our sample firms risk analysis is carried out mostly in an ad hoc fashion.