Development and Selection of Risk Response Strategy in Projects: An Analysis of Recent Literature

The development and selection of risk response strategies is a major phase in a project risk management process. The study focuses on recent literature with the purpose to analyze how this topic is found among the research concerns and the key trends in the area.The research focused on full length articles published in indexed academic journals and full proceedings papers indexed in Web of Science, as they can be considered as knowledge certified by peers and is a standard practice that enhances the reliability of results. We have restricted our search to a selected list of Web of Science indexed journals and conference proceedings. The selection used different combinations of keywords in title of articles, in Business and Management domain, and period 1990-April 2018.The selection of articles followed a two-step process: a keywords-based search using the Web of Science database and an analysis based on the researchers’ interpretations of the abstracts/contents in order to decide whether these articles actually dealt with the topic. Additionally, the study identifies research gaps and proposes directions for future research.

According to Project Management Institute (PMI, 2017), developing and selection of risk response strategies are carried out in two processes, respectively: plan risk responses and implement risk responses. On the other hand, ISO 31000:2018 indicates that risk treatment is one of the three major stages of risk management process (ISO, 2018).
A global consensus has been reached on the generic strategies that apply to project management, most of them taking over the classification proposed by the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the 11th chapter of PMBOK Guide. According to PMI (2017), risk can be not only negative, but also positive. Negative risks are always known as threat, and positive risks are also known as opportunities. The PMBOK Guide lists the possible risk responses for both types of risks. There are four possible strategies: avoid, transfer, mitigate and accept for negative risks and exploit, enhance, share and accept for positive risk.
In general, the application of one of the four generic strategies for risk management in projects is considered according to the probability and impact of each risk. Determining which of the four risk response strategies is better to choose and its operationalization through concrete measures will depend on a variety of factors, including the project type and the risk appetite of organisation.
Řeháček (2017) and Řeháček (2019) perform a comparison of risk response strategies and point that the individual is responsible for the ongoing process of selecting and implementing optimal responses to any identified risk or opportunity.
Gericke, Klimentew and Blessing (2009) mention the lack of systematic support for the selection of appropriate risk management strategies in projects as a barrier in the success of project risk management. The authors develop a method to help risk managers in a better selection of risk treatment strategies based on the information about the cost of the measure proposed along with the probability and impact of risk treated.
In Gericke, Klimentew and Blessing's (2009) vision, risk identification and risk assessment are the subject of many research projects, while risk response strategies selection remains the responsibility of the risk manager who faces numerous obstacles and the only help is his experience.
In this context, the study tries to identify and analyze the scientific papers that directly address the development and selection of risk response strategies. The paper is organized as follows: after this short brief of the study, the second section is an overview of the research method and of the results. The third section deals with the results discussion. Conclusions are given at the end.

Research Method and Results
The literature from the year 1999 to 2018 has been reviewed in the present research. The time frame considered for the research is between January 1990 and April 2018. April 2018 was the moment when the research was started.
In order to collect the research papers for the review, a rigorous search was carried out using the Web of Science database. We have taken Web of Science into consideration because of its notoriety and importance in the academic environment. For our research, we have used as search criteria: the search engine, the time frame, the domain of the article, and the key words.
It has been found that only some research papers are directly associated with the concept of risk management strategies; therefore, in order to make a comprehensive review of literature, all the research papers related to the concepts of risk response, risk treatment and risk handling strategies have also been considered.
The keywords used for selecting the articles are: risk management strategies, risk response, risk treatment, risk handling strategies and risk handling project. All of them reflect the way risk is addressed in all of the industries and also in social and other activities.
Further, it has been found that before 1999 the number of identified articles was very reduced. Considering the search criteria mentioned, we have identified only 5 articles, written by Blankenburg (1979), Hanna (1985), Dardis (1985 and1983) and Puto et al. (1985).
After final selection, the research papers were tabulated and classified on the basis of: The selection of articles was realized only in two main domains. There are many domains related to the key words used and generally to risk management, but our research is focused on articles classified in business and management.
Only the papers appearing in journals and conference proceedings were included for the review of literature, as they represented a higher level of research. Therefore, books, meeting abstracts, editorial materials and letters, were excluded from the analysis.
The first search based on risk management strategies keywords in the article title generated 178 articles. Selecting from them the articles related to business and management, and after the designated frame time, we have found 20 titles. We have excluded from the result 3 books, and at the end of the search remains 17 titles.
The search after risk response keywords in the article title generated 166 articles. After we have considered only the business and management articles, in the designated time frame, we have counted 9 articles. For this search we haven't found books revealed.
There were found 65 results for risk treatment keywords. Refined after business and management domains, and after the time frame, we have found only 3 articles. A book was eliminated, and only 2 titles left.
Searching after risk handling strategies keywords, we have obtained at the beginning only 2 titles. One of the books was published in 2012, but neither of them was related with business and management domain. So, for these keywords we had zero results.
Also for risk handling in projects we have had zero results, based only on the general search in the Web of Science.
The final results were verified for double titles, and the final number of articles based on the selection was 28. The results are presented in Table 1. A first quantitative result of the selection is presented in Table 2.
The first keywords used risk management strategies had a share of more than 60% in the total results, followed by risk response with 32.14% and risk treatment with 7.14%.
Keywords risk handling strategies and risk handling in projects did not generate any search results in the title of the articles. Regarding the distribution per year of the results, data are summarized in Table 3.  (Table  4). Project management, being a tool for general approaching for different activities, is normal to have a higher share. Excepting project management, supply chain is a result that underlines a specific interest for a particular domain. We also analyzed the results from the research method standpoint. We have identified five categories, which are distributed according to Table 5. As we can observe in Table 5, case studies represent the most used method in developing or confirming the theoretical models (46% of the articles are based on case studies). Next important tool for research is analytical literature review. We understand by analytical literature review articles which develop a theoretical model based only on literature review. The percentage of the usage of this method is 28%.
In terms of research results, we have identified that more than 57.14% of the results are based on a model: decision, conceptual, linear programing, mathematic, optimization models, and method related models (Table 6).

Discussions
As we can observe from the above mentioned results, we have identified that the main term used by authors such as Zuo From the analyzed papers, we can observe that the authors tried to have a general approach, but based on specific cases. The general approach is highlighted by considering the topics based on project management theory. Same time, the specific case studies help the authors in order to identify the patterns and the models of addressing the risk.

Conclusions and Future Research Directions
This paper analyses the literature on risk management strategies in projects and provides the summary of findings of 28 research papers published in journals and conference proceedings. From the results presented in the previous chapter, we can identify some patterns and answers regarding two research questions.
The first research question of the authors was "How has the business literature after 1990 researched development and selection of risk response strategy in projects?". The main conclusion is that the subject is included in many papers published in various fields of study, but the number of papers dealing exclusively with the formulation of risk management strategies is relatively low. There are some cases where the research is based mostly on literature review (28.57%), despite the fact that research based on practical facts could be more interesting.
Regarding the second research question, "How could results from the literature help to develop and select the proper risk management strategies in projects?", we can observe that the majority of articles try to provide some practical methods to address the topic. Even if we discuss about some recommendations, or a numeric model with practical applicability, or a theoretical model, the majority of the authors provide a practical tool for helping the economic or social environment to address risks. "Project management", "case studies" and "models" are three keywords which best describe the results of our research, and also the main directions of the papers found and analyzed by us until now. These three keywords are also connected to the practical side of the research. This practical side was and is very important in moving from the theoretical side of the risk management, to the practical one. The results from the literature offer support in developing and selecting the proper risk management strategies in the real economic and business activity. The research activity related to risk management is having an increasing trend that may continue in the next period. This increasing trend reflects and also confirms the risks from the economic and social environment, and stands for a better mitigation of them.
More than that, because of the existing risks from the real economic and social environment, the increasing trend of this type of research must be kept and sustained by the academic environment.
This study is the first insight into the literature regarding the development of risk management strategies in projects. In further research, the authors propose to carry out a deeper analysis of the identified works in order to build a map of the concerns in the field according to a set of criteria that help the managers to make a choice of the appropriate strategies.