Brand deletion as a Flexible Emergency Decision in the BANI world

Анотація

Ukrainian business units today operate in a BANI environment marked by brittleness, anxiety, nonlinearity, and incomprehensibility. Under such turbulence, traditional strategic planning loses practical relevance because it cannot ensure stability or continuity when information is fragmented and horizons shrink. This study introduces the concept of Flexible Emergency Decision-Making (FEDM) as a consulting system that structures bounded information into managerial decisions aimed at operational resilience and tactical rehabilitation.

FEDM is developed within the configurational approach and integrates four components: bounded rationality, STABE environmental analysis, the resource-based view (RBV), and organizational routines. Together, they form a four-level architecture: epistemological, analytical, resource-based, and operational - which organizes rapid decision-making under uncertainty. The framework was constructed using content analysis, comparison and synthesis of academic sources, and generalization of existing concepts. Its applicability is demonstrated through the Brand Deletion (BD) case. FEDM complements the Dynamic Capabilities framework by operationalizing short-term crisis responses that DC does not specify.

The BD analysis shows that FEDM effectively structures proactive and reactive actions in BANI conditions. Moving through FEDM’s levels: environmental diagnosis, mandate formation, resource alignment, and emergency routines - the BD process demonstrates how incomplete information is transformed into satisficing knowledge. Proactive decisions grounded in STABE analytics and RBV assessment support stronger tactical rehabilitation, while reactive actions executed through emergency routines provide operational resilience and control. These findings confirm the dual logic and practical validity of the FEDM system.

The FEDM concept extends decision theory by institutionalizing bounded rationality into the marketing consulting framework.  It compensates for the short-term decision gaps left by dynamic capabilities, providing immediate stabilization while DC enables long-term organizational resilience. The practical value of FEDM lies in its ability to convert fragmented crisis information into defensible managerial directives, offering an adaptive tool for decision-making in turbulent environments.