Analysing The Survival Strategies Used By Asset Management Firms In Zimbabwe’s Unstable Business Environment

Owing to the persistent instability and hostility that have characterised the Zimbabwe business environment over the years, asset management companies are struggling to survive. For these organisations to survive, they need to craft innovative strategies to survive in Zimbabwe’s harsh economic environment. We undertook a descriptive study to identify the underlying strategies that asset management companies employ to survive in Zimbabwe’s harsh business environment. 78 asset managers from 15 registered asset management companies were identified. Factor analysis was used in order to extract the main survival strategies that asset management firms are employing. The process extracted six strategies namely Human Resource Management and e-business, business re-engineering, brand loyalty, disinvesting in matured products, mergers and acquisitions, and customer retention. The study provides evidence of the importance of the six above mentioned strategies in ensuring company survival. Understanding the ways companies can survive in a harsh business environment helps to advance our theoretical understanding of firm survival in poorly performing economies. Such knowledge may help to inform asset managers about how they can sustain their firms given hash economic conditions. The study also provides insights to policy makers to formulate policies that help promote the sustainability of the financial services sector.