STRATEGIC UNCERTAINTY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING - THE CASE FOR INSTITUTIONAL INFLUENCES ON SCANNING BEHAVIOR

This study examined the relationship between perceptions of strategic uncertainty and environmental scanning behaviors. It has been postulat ed that the strength of this relationship will depend on the combined effect of the environmental constraints and the prevailing approach to strategic decision making. A sample of 141 medium-size Bulgarian comp anies, all of them operating in a highly constrained external environm ent and a business culture, characterized by a low degree of calculati ve strategic decision making, was used to test four hypotheses related to scanning behavior. The empirical findings of this study were then compared with the results of prior research on environmental scanning in the United States in order to draw conclusions for both the theory of scanning behavior and strategic management practice in various envi ronments. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.