The Effect of Enterprise Strategies Employed During the Crisis on the Growth Options of Companies

The recent worldwide economic crisis had drastic consequences for the economies of nations around the globe. As we are at the end of the crisis period, the really interesting strategic question is: what will happen after the crisis. We have some, but only limited, research evidence to answer this question properly. Scholars try to obtain answers by studying the consequences of the previous crisis periods. However, the recent crisis was unique in its expansion and rather accelerated spread all over the world.The present paper attempts to analyze this issue from a company-level point of view. We are interested in learning what has happened during the crisis, and what the reactions of companies were to the emerging new economic, technological and social conditions. The author has conducted empirical studies in Hungary and in the Slovak Republic. The empirical background of the paper includes studies of publications of research groups engaged in doing surveys in the field, as well as primary data collections through questionnaire surveys and interviews conducted in Hungary and in Slovakia. Keywords: economic crisis, enterprise strategy, adaptation, innovation