Economic impact of Syrian civil war: Crisis management in border city Hatay's firms

The Syrian civil war has transformed Middle-East firms drastically in many ways. As the number of dead people and refugees’ increased, the Syrian economy was torn apart, regional economic ties broke down and surrounding businesses slumped. The first economic effect on the bordering cities such as Hatay stems from the decrease of bilateral transactions between Syria and Turkey. Secondly, the unstoppable flow of Syrian refugees pouring into Turkey, particularly into neighboring cities became a ticking economic time bomb. In a developing country like Turkey with a GNP per capita of 10.404 USD (2014), it has not been easy to absorb what is widely estimated to be approximately 2.5 million (official figure) displaced Syrians. Most of the Syrian refugees are poorly qualified, and constitute a heavy burden on Turkey’s labor market which already has a high unemployment rate. Economic crises are economic events that suddenly and unexpectedly occur and lead to results that have crucial effects on countries’ economies and hence on businesses. Crisis management could be defined as a process which includes issues such as identifying possible problems threatening business operations and their future, formulating the appropriate reactions and strategies, implementing those strategies and auditing the results. The aim of the present study is to explore crisis management practices of the firms in Hatay, a Syrian bordering city in Turkey, during the Syrian civil war. One of the most important objectives of the study is to observe the responses and reactions of the firms to the economic impacts of this crisis by analyzing the underlying dimensions of the choice of crisis management styles and strategies. Subsequently, the study discusses managerial and theoretical implications for “crisis management” literature which could be useful for policy makers. Since recent research on crisis management around the world has established a number of empirical studies, the present study aims to contribute to the related literature by using a qualitative methodology, including in-depth interviews with top executives of firms operating in Hatay, observations and documents/archival records.