Background of recession
Recession is when in two consecutive quarters the national GDP of a country declines. Sometime a recession starts in one country and spreads worldwide to other countries’ markets in term of GDP, employment, development, government policies, etc. Young (2009) discussed that marketing strategies had not slowed down during a recession, while customer numbers had shrunk in the market. The top oil-producing countries, such as the USA, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran, were affected adversely due to the continuous decline of crude oil prices worldwide and this had a further adverse effect on stock-exchange, productivity and national growth. Kocak and Edwards (2005) observed the pivotal need for entrepreneurial behavior and inter‐firm co‐operation for small firms seeking growth in a volatile, recession‐hit environment. Leonard (2014) studied failing to recognize the inevitability of the next recession and to prepare for its uncertain arrival is a neglect of fiduciary responsibility. Alcidi and Gros (2011) drew a systematic comparison between the great depression and the great recession, where fiscal policy went to the limit of what was possible under the conditions as they existed then in US banking. Reeves and Deimler (2009) examined recession‐specific strategies designed to drive growth and ensure that a company survives. The review of Latham and Braun (2011) distills disparate scholarly works on firm behavior and recessions to provide a systematic appraisal and review of what people know and do not know about managing firms through economic downturn. Table I lists the top ten oil-producing countries worldwide that were highly impacted due to the oil price declination.