Disaster Recovery Journal- Volume 18, Issue 3 - Summer 2005 Issue

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Summer 2005 Index

DISASTER RECOVERY
JOURNAL

P. O. Box 510110
St. Louis, MO 63151
(314) 894-0276
Fax: (314) 894-7474
Internet www.drj.com
E-mail drj@drj.com

EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER
Richard L. Arnold, CBCP
richard@drj.com

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Jon Seals
jon@drj.com

SENIOR EDITOR
Janette Ballman
janette@drj.com

ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Ed Pearce, CBCP
ed@drj.com

ASSISTANT EDITOR
Pamela Clifton
pamelaclifton@hotmail.com

COPY EDITORS
Jim Hammill, CBCP
Richard Sandhofer
richards@drj.com

ADVERTISING
Robert Arnold
bob@drj.com

_____________

Corporate

President/CEO
Richard L. Arnold, CBCP
richard@drj.com

Vice President
Robert Arnold
bob@drj.com

CONFERENCE COORDINATOR
Patti Fitzgerald, CBCP
patti@drj.com

CONFERENCE REGISTRAR
Merce Knese
mercedes@drj.com

CIRCULATION
Laura Baugh
laurab@drj.com

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
Mike Croy, Forsythe
Jeff Dato, MBCP, KPMG
John Jackson
Edward S. Devlin, E.S. Devlin & Associates
James Hammill, CBCP, JMH Consulting Inc.
Pat McAnally, SunGard Availability Services
Brian Turley, Strohl Systems
Belinda Wilson, Hewlett-Packard

INTERNATIONAL
CONTACTS
England: Thom Hetherington
Business Continuity
Phone: 0161-237-1007
thomh@tempus.demon.co.uk
Japan: Shinji Hosotsubo
Crisis Management and Preparedness Organization
Phone: 03-3519-6270
fax: 03-3519-6255
hosotsubo@cmpo.org
Brazil: José Carlos Ferreira
Disaster Recovery Mercosul
Phone and fax: 011-3666-9506
jocaff@uol.com.br

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The Role of BCP Research

By THERESA KIRCHNER, MBCP, CCP & BECKY HOCHRADEL

You may be among the many business continuity professionals who have participated in a research effort or read an article outlining research results.
Why is research in the area of business continuity important? It is a relatively new and rapidly evolving field, which emerged as a major business focus within the last 25 years. Preventing and mitigating organizational and systemic business interruptions are perceived as increasingly vital in an era of constant change, technological advances, and perceived risk exposure. Organizational managers and the vendors who support them have developed a wealth of practical business continuity information and solutions. Research allows us to objectively evaluate and validate that knowledge and our intuitive understandings and beliefs.
Robert Chandler, of Pepperdine University, whose business continuity research concentrates on human factors, suggests that, for the field of business continuity to mature, we need to find ways to integrate practical knowledge, based on individual and organizational experiences, with knowledge derived from systematic theoretical, empirical, and applied research. This synthesized, in-depth research also allows us to identify additional questions that need to be answered, creating a cycle of knowledge building.
Ethne Swartz, of Lehigh University, whose work focuses on business continuity management, notes that research can not only assess business continuity practices but also influence them. Business continuity management can then become more strategic and less reactive.
How can you, as a business continuity professional, effectively assess the articles on industry research that you encounter?
First, evaluate the source of the research and the motives of the researcher. The motivation of a business continuity vendor, for example, may be to advance its knowledge and effectiveness as well as those of the industry. However, it may also develop and publish research primarily as an advertising tool to attract new customers.
Second, ask the researcher how the validity and reliability of the research study results have been established. Validity involves the degree to which a survey or study actually measures what it is intended to assess. Reliability involves the extent to which repeated surveys or studies with different samples show the same results. Both validity and reliability can be assessed statistically, and a researcher should be willing to explain how they were established and, in general, how the study was conducted.
Universities provide important business continuity research opportunities. They have on-line search tools and the expertise needed to identify and access previous research and analysis. They can assist with interview and focus group facilitation as well as survey development, and they often have sophisticated hardware and software capabilities. Unlike research on other business topics, there has been relatively little academic research on the subject of business continuity, and there are significant opportunities for universities to contribute to impartial and credible work in the area.
Non-academic research also supplies important contributions to our knowledge of business continuity. Business research organizations, such as Gartner, provide state-of-the-art industry and custom research, primarily for clients, but often in the form of free reports on business continuity topics. Industry vendors often conduct research to provide clients with information needed to implement strategic business continuity solutions and mitigate risk, but may sometimes share research results with industry implications with non-customers.
For example, Belinda Wilson of Hewlett Packard, whose current research focuses on understanding business continuity decisions from an executive perspective, believes that HP’s research enables it to continually improve customer service and be on the forefront of trends, using a best of breed approach and supporting industry standards.
The bottom line is that systematic research, from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives, is key to advancing the field of business continuity, and all solid research efforts move us along that important path.

Terri Kirchner, MBCP, is an instructor and Ph.D. research assistant with Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. She has been a member of the Disaster Recovery Journal Editorial Advisory Board for six years and is a recently-elected member of the DRI International Certification Commission. She welcomes comments and questions regarding this column and can be reached at tkirchne@odu.edu.

Becky Hochradel is an instructor and researcher with Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Va. Her areas of academic and practitioner expertise include empirical analysis, business ethics, marketing, and the impacts of events on organizations.