Enterprise risk management and board decision making: Context of Laos construction and tourism industry

The business world has persistently felt the need of a robust risk management approach and culture across organizations because of several external and internal threats that a business is prone to face. The risk management systems of businesses were exposed with the occurrence of financial crisis 2008, and since then businesses are trying to improve their risk planning, identification and management with improved strategies and systems. Accounting and corporate governance scandals are another problem that has raised the awareness and need of pursuing enterprise risk management with improved focus. Moreover, the business environment around the world is becoming increasingly competitive and external market forces are pushing increasing pressure on businesses which is a serious challenge for their growth and sustainability. These problems are indicating are wider scope of the study under investigation i.e., effective implementation of ERM for improving board decision making. This is a cross-sectional study and qualitative method has been used in this study for collecting and analysing data under which semi-structured interview technique has been employed for gathering primary data from the relevant board members of selected tourism and construction companies in Laos. Thematic analysis method has been used for analysing the data as part of which coding was established against the collected data. A gap exists in the literature regarding the standard implementation of ERM concept across developed and underdeveloped business world i.e., the adoption and implementation of ERM in the business environment of an underdeveloped country such as Laos is not clear. Lack of empirical evidence about the use of ERM as astrategic risk management tool across Laos (being an underdeveloped country) also exhibits a gap that is attempted to be fulfilled in this study. A key contribution intended by this study is the creation of awareness about the significant role of ERM for construction and tourism sector companies of Laos. Construction and tourism industries are two top performing industries of Laos, and this study intends to contribute towards the economic and strategic development of these industries by proposing a suitable and reliable ERM framework using which they can improve their board decision making.