Managerial Practices of Political Risk Assessment in Jordanian International Business

The aim of this research is to examine critically managerial practices of political risk assessment (PRA) in Jordan. In this research, unlike most recent studies, the managerial practices of risk assessment are examined within a firm-specific characteristics framework. In line with the research objective, a survey strategy was adopted: quantitative and qualitative methods were combined and staged. A multi-methods approach was used to achieve different research purposes. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to the entire target population of Jordanian international firms, while semi-structured interviews were held with managers in a subset of firms selected via a stratified sample of respondents to the self-administered questionnaires. In analysing the data, non-parametric statistics were used. The main findings of this research are that the majority of firms conduct PRA occasionally, and that the assessment is most often motivated by an internal need such as an investment proposal. Different sources of information are used by international firms, of which internal categories are the most important.