From crisis to opportunity: turnaround strategies of large Irish construction contractors during the period 2007-2015

The sudden change in environmental munificence level in the construction sector during the period 2007 – 2015 provides a natural experiment to investigate strategic and operating actions of firms, particularly during an environmental jolt. Statistics on business failures corroborate that neither academics nor practitioners have succeeded in guiding strategic action during periods of environmental jolt. Despite the recent increase of turnaround research in the general management domain, its use in the construction management realm remains underexplored. To address this research gap, five exploratory case studies of an ongoing PhD study were used to examine the turnaround strategies of construction contractors during a period of economic contraction and growth. The findings show that, although retrenchment is often considered to be a short-term strategy, this is clearly not the case; with the majority of contractors maintaining the strategy for 6-7 years. During the same period, internationalization became critical, with the turnaround process shifting towards strategic reorientation that altered the firms' market domain. The case studies further suggest that strategic and operational actions resonate quite well with contemporary practice-based approaches to strategy making. The findings provide valuable assistance for construction contractors in dealing with organisational decline and in developing a successful turnaround response.