Climate change is already having a powerful effect on many areas through superstorms and flooding events. The flooding from tropical storm Irene in 2011 took Vermont by surprise, sparking momentum for change. While adaptive capacity as a response to climate change is vital, in many cases it may not be enough. This thesis developed an analytical framework for assessing transformative capacities from a linked social-ecological system perspective. By combining the literatures of transition management and resilience transformations, a cohesive framework emerged, with a scope incorporating multiple interacting scales and phases of transformation.  The findings suggest a multiplicity of capacities are activated in a post-disaster setting, with networks, bridging organizations, and leaders as primary for restorative, adaptive, and transformative capacity activation, while innovation and obstacle negotiating as primary foci for informal networks and experimentation. Broadly, the framework when applied spatially (multi-scale) and temporally (multi-phase) was effective in uncovering dynamics of change processes. Additionally, a foundation of social, economic, and cultural aspects was shown to be influential in the development and mobilization of capacities, including community resilience, place attachment, and the long-term viability of the economic sector. This study makes a theoretical contribution by linking transitions and transformations literatures in a single framework, which can be tested in further studies.

This diploma thesis deals with the proposal of a “Disaster Recovery Plan” for the Informatics department at BUT’s Faculty of Business and Management. The first part consists of theoretical basis of crucial parts of disaster recovery plan, which is the very foundation for the proposal itself. The second part follows up with a description of the server room of the Informatics department, in particular its IT equipment. The third part deals with the very disaster recovery plan proposal which will function as a school code regulation and a foundation for a Business Continuity Management System document.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・論文博士 / 博士(地球環境学) / 乙第12964号 / 論地環博第12号 / 新制||地環||29(附属図書館) / 32363 / (主査)教授 ショウ ラジブ, 教授 岡﨑 健二, 准教授 西前 出 / 学位規則第4条第2項該当 / Doctor of Global Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DFAM

<p> </p> <p>This dissertation consists of three essays that examine the response of small businesses to disruptions in their environment. The first two essays focused on small non-farm businesses in the United States and how they deal with natural disasters. The last essay examined smallholder farm households in Malawi, and how their household labor allocation decisions are affected by land allocation to estates in their communities. The individual essays are summarized as follows:</p> <p>Essay 1: <em>A Conditional Process Approach to Understanding the Role of Adjustment Strategies and Disaster Experience in Racial Disparities in Small Business Performance. </em>Considering that most minority owned businesses have limited access to formal systems, this essay explored how race could indirectly affect business performance (measured as percentage revenue growth) through the adoption of three informal strategies: customer base expansion, supplier base expansion and family adjustment strategies. It also explored whether these indirect effects are moderated by experience with natural disaster. The results showed that being a racial minority was positively associated with revenue growth such that on average, minority business owners experienced 29% higher revenue growth than white-owned businesses (p<0.05) on business performance. It also showed a modest indirect effect of race on revenue growth through each mediating strategy (p<0.5). However, the results did not support a moderating role for disaster experience. </p> <p>Essay 2: <em>Willingness to Pay for Comprehensive Cyclone Insurance Coverage by Small Business Owners: Evidence from the Coastal States of the United States</em>. Small businesses in the coastal United States are usually uninsured or underinsured for cyclone events. The underinsuring of these businesses could be a result of limited insurance coverage as well as individual characteristics of small business owners. Using a discrete choice experiment, this essay used a hypothetical comprehensive cyclone insurance to understand what insurance attributes are important to small business owners. It also examined the role of previous disaster experience, charity hazard as well as temporal orientation on the willingness to pay for the disaster insurance. This study used a discrete choice experiment to elicit insurance preferences from small coastal businesses which employed less than 100 employees. A mixed logit model was used to analyze the data. The results showed that business owners exhibited positive marginal utilities from policies that covered flood, windstorm, and business interruption regardless of the combination. Notably, the mixed logit model showed that on average, business owners were willing to pay up to 450%, 472%, and 482% more than their total monthly business insurance premium payment for insurance that covers flood and business interruption, windstorm and business interruption, and flood, windstorm and business interruption respectively. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression showed that respondents who had previously experienced cyclones were more willing to pay for the presented insurance policies than those who have not. Future orientation was also found to be positively associated with the marginal willingness to pay for the insurance policies.</p> <p>Essay 3: <em>Estates and Small-Holder Agricultural Labor Dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa:</em> <em>A Case Study of Malawi. </em>Estates are larger than the average farm holdings, which mostly grow one crop, require large capital investment, are centrally managed and rely a lot on hired labor. With such large investments in agricultural land, the labor decisions of smallholder households in Africa will likely be altered. This essay therefore examined the role of estate farms on smallholders’ allocation of labor between on-farm, and off-farm demand and supply of casual labor using the <em>ganyu</em> system of Malawi as a case-study. Using the Malawi Integrated Household Panel survey covering the years 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019, we estimated the effect of estates on the participation of smallholders on these labor decisions as well as the number of days spent in each activity. We also investigated the effect of these estates on community agricultural labor (<em>ganyu) </em>wage rates and the share of income accruable to ganyu and crop production. Linear probability (LPM), as well as tobit-correlated random effects (CRE) regressions were used to test these effects. Both models showed that the share of estates had a negative correlation with <em>ganyu </em>demand. The Tobit CRE regression showed that on average a 1% increase in the percentage share of agricultural land occupied by estates was associated with a modest 0.04% (p<0.01) decrease in the number of days <em>ganyu </em>labor was demanded, and a 0.02% increase in the number of days household members spent on their own farms. Further results showed that households in communities with higher shares of estates participated in less non-crop farming activities especially wage employment. We also found that the negative relationship between estates and <em>ganyu </em>demand was accentuated among households with higher levels of assets, and farm income. Finally, we found a modest negative relationship between share of estates and community <em>ganyu </em>wage rates </p>

Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed the government's capacity to provide adequate long-term housing to disaster victims. In response, Congress created a pilot program to test the efficacy of permanent disaster housing prototypes known as "Katrina Cottages." However, implementation was hindered by a lack of planning and local opposition. In Mississippi, residents feared adverse impacts to property values, citing poor design quality resembling manufactured mobile homes as a primary concern. Using standardized local tax appraisals, this study finds that Katrina Cottages are valued significantly higher than manufactured homes. It further reveals no significant difference between Katrina Cottages and single-family homes. It also suggests a strong relationship between value and smart growth design metrics, including density, walkability, and urban context. However, it shows that Mississippi Katrina Cottages are valued lower than those in Alabama and Louisiana. Furthermore, analysis of community demographics suggests Katrina Cottages may be less valuable in wealthy communities.

This study examines the phenomenon of student resiliency as it relates to Nunez Community College students who returned to attend school in the community of St. Bernard Parish following Hurricane Katrina. Nunez Community College is located in Chalmette, Louisiana, fifteen miles east of the City of New Orleans. The community is adjacent to the Lower Ninth Ward. This study seeks to answer the questions of why the students returned to a disaster-stricken area to continue their studies and how the students coped in the aftermath. There is a significant gap in the literature on post-disaster resiliency and in particular, the role of education in post-disaster recovery. Twelve students who returned to Nunez Community College post-Katrina were interviewed using a Student Resilience Model as a conceptual framework. The perceptions of the students' post-disaster experiences resulted in five themes which included Individual Resilience, Post-Disaster Academic Integration, Post-Disaster Social Int

This study examines the recovery process of businesses in Homestead, Florida after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The goal of this study was to determine which organizational characteristics were useful in predicting the level of physical damage and the length of time to reopen for affected businesses. The organizational characteristics examined were age, size, pre-disaster gross sales, ownership of the business location, membership in the Chamber of Commerce, and property insurance. Three-hundred and fifty businesses in the area were surveyed. Because of the complexity of the recovery process, the disaster experiences of businesses were examined using three paradigms, organizational ecology, contingency theory, and configuration theory. Models were developed and tested for each paradigm. The models used the contextual variables to explain the outcome variables; level of physical damage and length of time to reopen. The SIC was modified so that it could form the framework for a taxonomic examination of the businesses. The organizations were examined at the level of division, class, subclass, and order. While the taxa and consistent levels of physical damage, the length of time needed to reopen varied greatly. The homogeneous level of damage within the groups is linked to similarity in assets and transformation processes. When examined using the contingency perspective, there were no significant relationships between the level of physical damage and the contextual variables. Only predisaster gross sales and level of physical damage had moderate strength associations with the length of time to reopen. The configuration perspective was applied by identifying clusters of organizations using the contextual variables. Clusters were identified and examined to determine if they had significantly different disaster experiences. The clusters varied significantly only by the length of time to reopen. The disaster experience of businesses is conceptualized as a process of accumulation-deaccumulation-reaccumulation. The level of physical damage is driven by selection while the lenght of time to reopen is determined by both adaptation and selection.

Diante da constante necessidade de funcionamento ininterrupto dos sistemas computacionais, das mais diversas organizações, é imperativo que existam meios de continuidade dos negócios e recuperação de desastres implantados, testados e prontos para serem invocados. Diante disso, torna-se essencial a existência de uma maneira de avaliar se as informações, os procedimentos e o nível do conhecimento dos colaboradores da organização estão adequados para enfrentar uma ocorrência inesperada e devastadora no ambiente computacional da organização. A presente tese propõe um modelo hierárquico para se representar e avaliar a qualidade dos Projetos de Planos de Continuidade de Negócios (PPCN) aplicados a sistemas computacionais. Este modelo apresenta o mapeamento das principais características que esses planos devem possuir, de acordo com as principais normas relativas ao tema (BS 25999, ABNT NBR ISO/IEC 27001 e ABNT NBR ISO/IEC 27002), as experiências de especialistas da área e dados reais dos usuários dos PPCNs obtidos por meio da utilização de questionários. É proposto neste trabalho, também, um Índice de Qualidade (IQ) para os PPCNs que permite a comparação de um PPCN existente com um PPCN ideal, identificando-se os pontos fracos nele existentes e munindo a organização com informações para a busca de soluções que resultarão na melhoria do PPCN atual. / Given the need for computer systems uninterrupted operation, for the most different organizations, it is imperative that business continuity and disaster recovery plans be already in place, tested and ready to be invoked. Given this, it is essential for there being a way to assess whether the information, procedures and organizations employees knowledge level are adequate to deal with an unexpected and devastating event in the organization\'s computing environment. This thesis proposes a hierarchical model to represent and assess the organizations computer systems Business Continuity Plan Project (BCPP) quality. This model maps the main features these plans should have, in accordance with the main standards related to this area (BS 25999, ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27002), specialists experience and real data from BCPPs users obtained from questionnaires. As a complementary proposal, a BCPP Quality Index (QI) is suggested, which will allow organizations to compare their existing BCPP against an ideal BCPP, identifying the gaps between these plans and providing the organization with information for seeking solutions that will result in the improvement of current BCPP.

Diante da constante necessidade de funcionamento ininterrupto dos sistemas computacionais, das mais diversas organizações, é imperativo que existam meios de continuidade dos negócios e recuperação de desastres implantados, testados e prontos para serem invocados. Diante disso, torna-se essencial a existência de uma maneira de avaliar se as informações, os procedimentos e o nível do conhecimento dos colaboradores da organização estão adequados para enfrentar uma ocorrência inesperada e devastadora no ambiente computacional da organização. A presente tese propõe um modelo hierárquico para se representar e avaliar a qualidade dos Projetos de Planos de Continuidade de Negócios (PPCN) aplicados a sistemas computacionais. Este modelo apresenta o mapeamento das principais características que esses planos devem possuir, de acordo com as principais normas relativas ao tema (BS 25999, ABNT NBR ISO/IEC 27001 e ABNT NBR ISO/IEC 27002), as experiências de especialistas da área e dados reais dos usuários dos PPCNs obtidos por meio da utilização de questionários. É proposto neste trabalho, também, um Índice de Qualidade (IQ) para os PPCNs que permite a comparação de um PPCN existente com um PPCN ideal, identificando-se os pontos fracos nele existentes e munindo a organização com informações para a busca de soluções que resultarão na melhoria do PPCN atual. / Given the need for computer systems uninterrupted operation, for the most different organizations, it is imperative that business continuity and disaster recovery plans be already in place, tested and ready to be invoked. Given this, it is essential for there being a way to assess whether the information, procedures and organizations employees knowledge level are adequate to deal with an unexpected and devastating event in the organization\'s computing environment. This thesis proposes a hierarchical model to represent and assess the organizations computer systems Business Continuity Plan Project (BCPP) quality. This model maps the main features these plans should have, in accordance with the main standards related to this area (BS 25999, ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27002), specialists experience and real data from BCPPs users obtained from questionnaires. As a complementary proposal, a BCPP Quality Index (QI) is suggested, which will allow organizations to compare their existing BCPP against an ideal BCPP, identifying the gaps between these plans and providing the organization with information for seeking solutions that will result in the improvement of current BCPP.

Despite the effects of natural disasters on small business owners, the owners' communication strategies to alleviate loss to their companies' profitability remain problematic. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive multiunit case study was to explore what communication strategies some small business owners developed and implemented for facilitating resuming their business operations after a natural disaster. The targeted population consisted of 2 small business owners located along the Belmar Boardwalk in Belmar, New Jersey. The conceptual framework for this study was Coombs' situational crisis communication theory. The case data collected were from semistructured interviews and company documents. Employing member checking and methodological triangulation increased the assurance of the study's credibility and trustworthiness. The data analysis consisted of separating the data into groupings, identifying major groupings, assessing the information within the major groups, and developing thematic interpretations. The 4 validated themes that emerged were communication, community, disaster recovery, and stakeholders (employees). The findings from this study may contribute to social change by providing communication strategies that small business owners can use to mitigate losses from disasters, and facilitate businesses' and communities' recovery for reducing further losses.