Leveraging enterprise risk management (ERM) for boosting competitive business advantages in Bahrain

Purpose - Recently, the energetic and enormously competitive business environment has seen a stage of failure, from natural disasters to business crisis. Global competition and economic instability leads to errors, to unsuccessful business decisions, to defective performance and, finally, to failure. Conversely, effective anticipation of emerging risks can yield competitive advantage. The aim of this paper is to measure a proposed conceptual research model, based on various existing ERM frameworks. Design/methodology/approach - The current study measures a proposed conceptual research model, based on various existing ERM frameworks, which provides a wide range of consulting services that assist companies in boosting competitive business advantage using enhanced risk response capabilities. Due to the nature of the current study and its hypothesis, the primary research purpose is, thus, explanatory. This model was empirically tested to measure the five proposed variables: identifying risks, estimating risks, treating risks, monitoring and communication, which are considered as independent variables that affect boosting competitive business advantage, which is considered as dependent variable. Findings - The analytical results show that there is a highly significant relationship between all identified factors of the independent variables and the boosting competitive business advantage. It also indicates that, overall, the model applied is significantly good enough in predicting the successful preparedness for any potential risk. Originality/value - Enterprise risk management (ERM) is a new management notion for rapidly enhancing the business plan globally. Its relevancy and popularity as a management technique are abetted by the changing business practices and burgeoning regulatory requirements of risk management. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the extent to which public listed companies (PLCs) in Bahrain have adopted ERM programmes and, then, to evaluate the significance of these programmes in adding distinctive competitiveness for these firms.