The present study investigates how chief executive officers in the Canadian telecommunications industry acquire and use information about the external business environment, an information seeking activity known as environmental scanning. Data were collected by a nationwide questionnaire survey and several focused interviews. Of the 113 CEOs in the study population, 67 returned completed questionnaires, thus giving a response rate of 59 percent. Personal interviews were then conducted with eight of the respondents. The chief executives collectively perceive the Technological, Customer, and Competition environmental sectors to have the greatest Perceived Strategic Uncertainty – these sectors were perceived to be the most strategic, variable and complex. For each environmental sector, the Amount of Scanning of the sector is positively correlated with the Perceived Strategic Uncertainty of that sector. Generally, the chief executives use multiple, complementary sources in environmental scanning. Personal sources such as customers and subordinate staff are very important in both scanning and decision making, and they are used more frequently than impersonal sources. Nonetheless, impersonal sources such as publications and reports are also frequently used in scanning. In decision making, environmental information from internal sources is used more frequently than that from external sources. For many of the information sources, the frequency of source use is

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CEOs SCAN THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT for information about events and trends in order to plan their organizations ’ future courses of action. This study investigates how CEOs in the Canadian publishing and telecommunications industries acquire and use information about the business environment. The uncertainty of the environment was found to be related to the amount of scanning done. The perceived quality of information sources and the environmental uncertainty accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in source use. Information about the environment was often used in making decisions concerning organizational improvements and business strategies.

Noting that accurate information needs overlay the entire intelligence cycle from planning to reporting, the authors propose a new concept to fine-tune the process of electronically gathering information. Since most tools are nondiscriminatory in information gathering, a new concept is needed to assist managers at all levels of the organization. The proposed multi-class interest profile (M-CLIP) provides the capability of expanding the representation of interests to reflect the assorted areas that make up a manager’s information needs. The M-CLIP covers project, organizational, and industry class interest areas. Each area is customizable to make the search pertinent to the user while considering the need for both recall and precision. Supporting features, such as profile expansion, and fine-tuning are also considered.

Market information is a major problem in international markets, particularly for small firms and newcomers (Seringhaus and Rosson 1990). This paper discusses two main sources of international market information: objective market research and information provided through network relations. It is posited – in line with sociological economists (Granovetter 1973 and 1985 and Burt 1992)- that this latter source of information in many cases is more reliable and useful than research provided through market research. This stance is however contingent on the quality of the network and the skills of the firm in carrying out or commissioning marketing research. A typology of four different kinds of firms is developed and discussed, based on the two dimensions. The four categories are: the small beginner, the established beginner, the network-oriented firm, the international firm. 1

1 There is a renewed focus on top managers ’ impact on organizational outcomes.

We extend the Western strategic management literature on environmental scanning to the entrepreneurial context by surveying business owners in two countries. Specifically, using the framework of Daft, Sormunen and Parks (1988), we test how perceived environmental uncertainty in seven environmental sectors and information accessibility influence scanning frequency of venture owners in the U.S. and India, two dissimilar entrepreneurial settings. Overall, entrepreneurs in India scan more frequently than do U.S. entrepreneurs, and the perceived rate of environmental change and accessibility of information are associated with their scanning. In the U.S., only perceived information accessibility prompts scanning. These results, which depart from inferences drawn from samples of managers in the Western literature, offer potential for extending scanning theory by cross-culturally broadening the theoretical nexus between organization theory, strategy and entrepreneurship in more fully understanding scanning behavior. Key Words: entrepreneurship, scanning, strategy 2 The literatures of organization theory and strategic management are replete with discussion of the influences of environmental complexity and volatility on organization decision-making, structure and

This exploratory study examined the different tourism market development strategies that tourism Multinational Corporations (MNCs) implement in their operations in African host countries. It empirically investigated the existence of any relationships between tourism MNCs ’ market development strategies and the “Needs and Expectations of African host countries. ” Also, it investigated the influences of external environmental factors on tourism MNCs ’ tourism market strategic choice. Its sample population were top management executives of tourism MNCs ’ with operations in the African market. The unit of analysis was the corporation. The sample frame was an exhaustive list of tourism MNCs with operations in the African region. The initial sample size was 106 tourism MNCs ’ executives. Thirty-seven of them responded to a mail in survey questionnaire. Two of the questionnaires were discarded due to numerous missing data. Thus, there were 35 usable questionnaires for data analysis, which is a response rate of 33%. The study results identified relationships between the integration of Multinational Corporations ’ (MNCs) tourism market development strategies with the needs andexpectations of developing African host countries, and their successful performance in

This paper is work in progress and I am thankful for any comments and suggestions regarding it. Errors and omissions might remain in the paper and the intention is not to implicate any of them to the many scholars that have moved the field forward. Please do not quote without prior permission from the author. This paper examines how managers create and develop strategy in practice. It reports findings of an in-depth investigation of managerial activities and associated learning dynamics in strategy creation, the generation and development of radically new strategies. Managerial and learning activities on different organizational levels, their influence on strategy development, and relationship to strategic change are examined. A dual longitudinal case methodology, including a single in-depth case study combined with a multiple retrospective case study is used, involving four multinational companies. The findings show a twofold character of strategy creation including an adaptive and a creative strategy motor of strategic change involving fundamentally different learning dynamics, reflecting their diverse location and social embeddedness. Adaptive learning dynamics were based on exploitation and refinement of prevailing industry and resource structures and involved a deductive reasoning or sensemaking as regards strategy, including knowledge assimilation activities such as formal intelligence and routine experiences. Creative learning dynamics evolved in the periphery of the organizations and were more remote from existing values and beliefs. They predominantly involved exploration and inductive sensemaking, including activities like informal noticing and creative experiments. The exploration/exploitation trade off interaction between the two strategy motors resulted in tension, which finally triggered strategic change.

Environmental scanning is the acquisition and use of information about events and trends in an organization’s external environment, the knowledge of which would assist management in planning the organization’s future courses of action. This paper reports a study of how 13 chief executives in the Canadian publishing and telecommunications industries scan their environments and use the information in decision making. Each respondent was asked to relate two critical incidents of information use. The incidents were analyzed according to their environmental sectors, the information sources, and their use in decision making. The interview data suggest that the chief executives concentrate their scanning on the competition, customer, regulatory, and technological sectors of the environment. In the majority of cases, the chief executives used environmental information in the Entrepreneur decisional role, initiating new products, projects, or policies. The chief executives acquire or receive environmental information from multiple, complementary sources. Personal sources are important for information on customers and competitors; while printed or formal sources are also important for information on technological and regulatory matters. 1 How senior managers acquire and use information in environmental scanning 1.