Chinese business leaders suffered from the crisis of COVID-19 and the Double Reduction Policy, and used various strategies and learning practices to survive the crisis. The purpose of this modified exploratory multicase study was to explore how leaders in the Chinese tutoring industry made sense of the crisis of the Pandemic and the Double Reduction Policy and learned to think strategically in a time of crisis. The study not only uncovered how Chinese business leaders used different strategies to deal with a crisis and learned to think strategically while adapting to the new environment but also brought implications and insights to business leaders about effective strategies and learning practices to cultivate strategic thinking in a complex and fast-changing world. The study addressed the following four research questions: 1.How did the business leaders in tutoring companies make sense of the complexities of the crisis of COVID-19 and the Double Reduction Policy? 2.What strategies, if any, did the business leaders develop to deal with the crisis? 3.In what ways, if at all, did the business leaders learn to think strategically while dealing with challenges? 4.What other factors helped or hindered the business leaders’ learning to think strategically in a time of crisis? Qualitative semi-structured interviews (critical incident interviews included), surveys, and a focus group discussion were used to collect data from 15 Chinese business leaders from the tutoring industry. The study generated four findings: Finding 1: The crisis negatively impacted the participants and their companies at different levels, but it also served as a valuable learning opportunity for their long-term development. Finding 2: The participants developed strategies to deal with the crisis at personal, organizational, and social levels. Finding 3: The participants learned to think strategically from direct experiences, indirect experiences, and two thinking processes—systems thinking and metaphorical thinking. Finding 4: Policies and relationships were two outstanding factors that hindered or helped their learning to think strategically. These findings indicated that (1) unprecedented crises like COVID-19 and the Double Reduction Policy can bring people benefits and valuable insights, (2) business leaders can develop critical strategies by combining their own and others' experiences and strategic insights into dealing with crises, (3) business leaders can use informal learning practices and deliberately use them to cultivate their strategic thinking, and (4) business leaders need to combine learning and action for cultivating strategic thinking capabilities. Lastly, business leaders should consider the influence of policies and relationships in their strategy formulation and learning process.

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The major purpose of this study was to develop a model to analyze designated variables inherent in hotel/motel operations and to determine their interrelationships and effects on profitability measures. An additional purpose was to determine the regression equations for predicting future profitability in the hotels/motels used in this study. A final analysis conducted in this study was a comparison of highly profitable properties with marginally profitable or losing properties to determine which independent variables' means were significantly different. The four profitability measures, expressed as ratios, used in this study were: (a) Consolidated Operating Margin, (b) Consolidated Return on Assets, (c) Rooms Department Operating Margin, and (d) Restaurant Operating Margin. Twenty-six variables were hypothesized as predicting or having a significant effect on profitability. These included: (a) Room Rate, (b) Occupancy Rate, (c) Marketshare Percentage, (d) Administrative and General Expense, (e) Labor Cost for the Rooms Department, (f) Rooms Department Advertising, (g) Property Tax, (h) Restaurant Total Expense, (i) Restaurant Other Revenue, (j) Food Cost, (k) Beverage Cost, (1) Food and Beverage Labor Cost, (m) Food and Beverage Advertising, (n) Room Sales as a Percent of Consolidated Sales, (o) Depreciation, (p) Interest Expense, (q) Unemployment Percentage, (r) Chain Affiliation, (s) Location of the Property (highway, center city, suburban and airport), (t) Age of the Property, and (u) Properties that were Renovated Compared to Properties that were not Renovated. The remaining variables were combinations of or modifications on the previously mentioned variables. Data analyses were based on information collected in 40 hotels/motels in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. All operations selected for this study were mid-priced hotels/motels affiliated with a national hotel chain. The data were collected from fiscal year 1982 and fiscal year 1983 accounting information and public records. Occupancy Rate, Rooms Department Labor Cost, Administrative and General Expense, Room Sales as a percentage of Total Sales and Food Cost proved to have substantial influence on profit. These variables had high correlations with the profitability measures, most frequently fit the regression models, and showed significant differences between highly profitable operations and the marginally profitable or losing operations. / Ph. D.