Many organizations today are faced with an increasing number of risks related to their internal and external environments. When these risks manifest, the results can be disastrous. Recently, as these disasters have increased in frequency and scale, researchers have tried to understand what role risk management plays in helping companies withstand the impact of these 'risk events.' In this study, I explore two theoretical domains in management research which are amenable to understanding risk management from a managerial perspective. Drawing upon research in organizational theory and managerial cognition, I formulate a model which examines whether a company's slack resources or the managerial attention allocated to matters of risk, impact the likelihood that companies experience a 'risk event.' I gather data on over 400 companies over six years to test my assertions. Results suggest that facets of managerial attention--mainly how many diverse categories of risk managers attend to as well as the amount of attention devoted to their external environment--reduced the likelihood of experiencing a 'risk event.' The findings of my study contribute to research in management in two ways. First, my research extends existing theory in management by exploring how organization's handle risk. Second, I test my assertions by using a data source previously unexplored in research on risk in the field of management--suggesting that this new data source may be fruitful in future research endeavors.

My dissertation is organized as follows. First, I introduce my research topic and research question. Second, I review the literature on risk management, slack and the attention based view of organizations. Third, I introduce my theoretical arguments and hypotheses for testing. Fourth, I discuss my method for testing my hypotheses as well as discuss my data source, variables and analytical technique. Fifth, I present the results of my analysis. Last, I conclude with an overview of my findings, the limitations of my research and areas for future research as a result of my study.