A sign on the gate of a building on St Asaph Street. The sign reads, "Let us in now to save building and business. Do not demolish".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 21 May 2011 entitled, "Market Moved".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 25 March 2011 entitled, "Day 32, 6pm - in the red zone".
Summary of oral history interview with Phillippa Jacobs about her experiences of the Canterbury earthquakes.
The "Lyttelton Review" newsletter for 16 January 2012, produced by the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre.
An infographic showing business recovery in Christchurch.
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 28 March 2011 entitled, "Day 35 - inside the red zone".
The "Lyttelton Review" newsletter for 22 August 2011, produced by the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre.
Initial recovery focus is on road access (especially the inland SH70) although attention also needs to be focussed on the timelines for reopening SH1 to the south. Information on progress and projected timelines is updated daily via NZTA (www.nzta.govt.nz/eq-travel ). Network analyses indicate potential day trip access and re-establishment of the Alpine Pacific triangle route. When verified against ‘capacity to host’ (Part 2 (15th December) there appears to potential for the reestablishment of overnight visits. Establishing secure road access is the key constraint to recovery. In terms of the economic recovery the Kaikoura District has traditionallyattracted a large number of visitors which can be grouped as: second home (and caravan) owners, domestic New Zealand and international travellers. These have been seen through a behaviour lens as “short stop”, ‘day” (where Kaikoura is the specific focal destination) and overnight visitors. At the present restricted access appears to make the latter group less amenable to visiting Kaikoura, not the least because the two large marine mammal operators have a strong focus on international visitors. For the present the domestic market provides a greater initial pathway to recovery. Our experiences in and reflections on Christchurch suggest Kaikoura will not go back to what it once was. A unique opportunity exists to reframe the Kaikoura experience around earthquake geology and its effects on human and natural elements. To capitalise on this opportunity there appears to be a need to move quickly on programming and presenting such experiences as part of a pathway to re-enabling domestic tourists while international visitor bookings and flows can be re-established. The framework developed for this study appears to be robust for rapid post disaster assessment. It needs to be regularly updated and linked with emerging governance and recovery processes.
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 26 July 2013 entitled, "Royal Restoration".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 7 November 2011 entitled, "Retail Re-start".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 11 April 2011 entitled, "Day 49 - last day behind the cordon".
An entry from Deb Robertson's blog for 21 June 2013 entitled, "Buying New Zealand Made...".
Transcript of Liz Grant's earthquake story, captured by the UC QuakeBox project.
The "Lyttelton Harbour Review" newsletter for 4 February 2013, produced by the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre.
Website provides practical advice and information for business recovery following the Canterbury earthquake.
An entry from Deb Robertson's blog for 20 March 2013 entitled, "Road works, Road cones and a Triangle Quilt".
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 30 June 2012 entitled, "Bravo Ballantynes!".
The initial goal of this research was to explore how SME business models change in response to a crisis. Keeping this in mind, the business model canvas (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2010) was used as a tool to analyse SME business models in the Canterbury region of New Zealand. The purpose was to evaluate the changes SMEs instituted in their business models after being hit by a series of earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. The idea was to conduct interviews with business owners and analyse them using grounded theory methods. As this method is iterative and requires simultaneous data collection and analysis, a tentative model was proposed after first phase of the data collection and analysis. However, as a result of this process, it became apparent that owner-specific characteristics, action orientation and networks were more prominent in the data than business model elements. Although the SMEs in this study experienced several operational changes in their business models, such as a change of location, modifications to their payment terms or expanded/restricted target markets, the suggested framework highlights how owner-specific attributes ensured the recovery of their businesses. After the initial framework was suggested, subsequent interviews were conducted to test, verify, and modify the tentative model. Three aspects of business recovery emerged: (a) cognitive coping – the business owner’s mind-set and motive; (b) adaptive coping – the ability of business owner to take corrective actions; and (c) social capital – the social network of a business owner, including formal and informal connections and their significance. Three distinct groups were identified; self-sufficient SMEs, socially-based SMEs and surviving SMEs. This thesis proposes a grounded theory of business recovery for SMEs following a disaster. Cognitive coping and social capital enabled the owners to take actions, which eventually led to the desired outcomes for the businesses.
The "Lyttelton Review" newsletter for 19 September 2011, produced by the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre.
A copy of the CanCERN online newsletter published on 23 September 2011
Organisations play a vital role in assisting communities to recover from disasters. They are the key providers of goods and services needed in both response and recovery efforts. They provide the employment which both anchors people to place and supports the taxation base to allow for necessary recovery spending. Finally, organisations are an integral part of much day to day functioning contributing immensely to people’s sense of ‘normality’ and psychological wellbeing. Yet, despite their overall importance in the recovery process, there are significant gaps in our existing knowledge with regard to how organisations respond and recover following disaster. This research fills one part of this gap by examining collaboration as an adaptive strategy enacted by organisations in the Canterbury region of New Zealand, which was heavily impacted by a series of major earthquakes, occurring in 2010 and 2011. Collaboration has been extensively investigated in a variety of settings and from numerous disciplinary perspectives. However, there are few studies that investigate the role of collaborative approaches to support post-disaster business recovery. This study investigates the type of collaborations that have occurred and how they evolved as organisations reacted to the resource and environmental change caused by the disaster. Using data collected through semi-structured interviews, survey and document analysis, a rich and detailed picture of the recovery journey is created for 26 Canterbury organisations including 14 collaborators, six non-traders, five continued traders and one new business. Collaborations included two or more individual businesses collaborating along with two multi-party, place based projects. Comparative analysis of the organisations’ experiences enabled the assessment of decisions, processes and outcomes of collaboration, as well as insight into the overall process of business recovery. This research adopted a primarily inductive, qualitative approach, drawing from both grounded theory and case study methodologies in order to generate theory from this rich and contextually situated data. Important findings include the importance of creating an enabling context which allows organisations to lead their own recovery, the creation of a framework for effective post-disaster collaboration and the importance of considering both economic and other outcomes. Collaboration is found to be an effective strategy enabling resumption of trade at a time when there seemed few other options available. While solving this need, many collaborators have discovered significant and unexpected benefits not just in terms of long term strategy but also with regard to wellbeing. Economic outcomes were less clear-cut. However, with approximately 70% of the Central Business District demolished and rebuilding only gaining momentum in late 2014, many organisations are still in a transition stage moving towards a new ‘normal’.
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 22 March 2012 entitled, "Lamenting the Loss".
A story submitted by Elizabeth to the QuakeStories website.
An entry from Jennifer Middendorf's blog for 30 August 2014 entitled, "A photographic tour of Christchurch".
The "Lyttelton Harbour Review" newsletter for 27 May 2013, produced by the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre.
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 19 November 2012 entitled, "Back at Bailies".
An entry from Deb Robertson's blog for 20 September 2012 entitled, "A few snapshots of the residential red-zone....".
A copy of the CanCERN online newsletter published on 14 September 2012
A research dissertation by Jessie Ford, submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Commerce with Honours in Management.