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The role that luck plays in management success is a disputed topic. Overall, managers tend to take credit for their successes and attribute failures to bad luck. Luck also undermines the claims of management training to guarantee positive results. Overall, luck is less important for library managers because most libraries have guaranteed funding in contrast to those organizations that depend upon generating revenue from their less predictable customers and clients. The physical world offers bad luck with fires, floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes. Luck from people can include both—an assault in the library or an unexpected grant opportunity. Library managers should not attribute failures to bad luck before emotionlessly evaluating the reasons and taking away any lessons for future success. They should also be open to finding good luck by continuously scanning their environment and then acting quickly to benefit from any opportunities before they slip away. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business analytics presents significant opportunities for enhancing strategic decision-making (SDM), which is crucial for organizational competitiveness. However, there is a knowledge gap in understanding the interactions among environmental dynamism, business analytics use, environmental scanning, and rational and intuitive SDM. This paper addresses this gap by leveraging the information processing view and analyzing 218 survey responses using partial least squares (PLS) path modeling. It reveals that environmental dynamism influences business analytics use and environmental scanning. Business analytics use positively impacts rational SDM but negatively affects intuitive SDM. Environmental scanning partially mediates the relationship between business analytics use and rational SDM, and there is an inverse correlation between rational and intuitive SDM. This research introduces a novel theoretical framework, enriching the information processing view, and deepens understanding of how strategic information processing capabilities influence SDM. It also provides practical insights for organizations using business analytics to improve SDM processes in uncertain environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the prevalence of traditional fuels and the increasing awareness of their negative effects on sustainability, policymakers and government authorities in Nepal have been compelled to transition towards promoting the adoption of clean energy. Nevertheless, as a result of numerous obstacles, the rate of renewable energy utilization has remained sluggish. Therefore, the country's policymakers must become acquainted with the factors that impede the progress of renewable energy. The objective is to pinpoint the constraints, restrictions, and barriers that hinder the advancement of renewable energy access to rural communities in Nepal. The current study used the Delphi Technique of Environmental Scanning to identify the barriers impeding the adoption of renewable energy. In addition, an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was performed to redefine categories of bottlenecks depending on the direction of the factors in the context of Nepal. Ultimately, the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchical Process (FAHP) has been employed to determine the priority of distinct bottlenecks of clean energy development. The study suggests that Nepal's advancement in sustainable energy is hindered by financial obstacles, primarily due to the significant initial investment, which accounts for 19% of the challenges, and the lack of effective fiscal incentives provided by the government to developers and users, which accounts for 10.6% of the challenges. The research identified many contributory reasons, including the function of regulatory organizations (6.4%), inadequate political commitments (6%), inefficient existing energy policy (5%), and poor public knowledge (5%). To promote the development of sustainable energy sources in rural areas, it is crucial to implement economic incentives, provide financial support, establish partnerships between the public and private sectors, and utilize innovative financing methods such as green bonds, crowdfunding, and carbon financing. Additionally, it is necessary to increase political commitments to amend existing renewable energy policies in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community resource mapping (CRM) is a process for identifying community resources vital to the successful post-secondary transition to adulthood for youth with extensive support needs (ESN). By adopting the four-step process delineated in the National Center on Secondary Education and Transition's Essential Tool: Community Resource Mapping, we present an adaptable digital CRM process that aligns with transition services as an outcome-based process. This is shown through enhancing internal and external collaboration efforts with various agencies, school staff, and families in identifying community resources in a streamlined and accessible process for youth with ESN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the key factors influencing an organisation's profitability and success in the business world is its productivity. This explains why manufacturing companies want to reach high productivity levels in order to generate more profit, succeed and stay relevant in the marketplace. This study examined the relationship between strategic management practices and organisational productivity (OP) of aluminium manufacturing firms in Delta State, Nigeria. To obtain primary data from study participants and determine the relationship between the study's constructs, the researcher used survey research designs in this study. A total of 383 copies of the questionnaire were given to the study participants in order to assess the study hypotheses, of which 348 were considered to be valid. Both interitem covariance and multiple regression analysis were utilised in this study for data analysis via Stata. Findings revealed that the dimensions of strategic management practices (environmental scanning (ES), strategy formulation (SF), strategy implementation (SI) and strategy evaluation (SE), have a positive significant effect on OP. Based on the study findings, it was recommended that organisations, particularly aluminium firms, should be actively engaged in strategic management practices like continual and effective ES, sound SF, timely and efficient SI and a standard process for SE in order to achieve a high level of OP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As environmental pressures intensify and digital technology advances rapidly, many countries, including China, are looking to more effectively heed social and environmental responsibilities by effectively integrating digital technology with traditional industries. Digital green innovation is gradually becoming a necessary direction for enterprises in various countries as they strive for high-quality development. How enterprises can achieve digital green innovation through the duality of digitalization and sustainability has become a crucial research question. However, existing research rarely addresses the mechanisms that lead to the formation of digital green innovation within enterprises. This study uses a sample of 305 manufacturing enterprises in China. Based on strategic orientation theory, this study introduces the concept of digital sustainability orientation, integrating both digital and sustainability orientations. A model is constructed to examine the impact of digital sustainability orientation on digital green innovation in enterprises, analyzing the mechanism of action through the mediation of capability reconfiguration and the moderation of environmental scanning. The study finds that digital sustainability orientation significantly positively impacts digital green innovation, highlighting the integrated effect of digital and sustainability orientations. The findings indicate that digital sustainability orientation significantly positively impacts digital green innovation, whereas a single strategic orientation does not effectively promote digital green innovation; capability reconfiguration partially mediates the relationship between digital sustainability orientation and digital green innovation in enterprises; and environmental scanning positively moderates the relationship between digital sustainability orientation and capability reconfiguration and further influences the mediating role of capability reconfiguration. This study contributes to the advancement of digital sustainability theory in the field of digital green innovation; moreover, the results of this study offer significant practical insights for enterprises aiming to successfully implement digital green innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Horizon scanning is a process to generate foresight – insight into how the future could unfold. Horizon scanning involves systematically searching a wide range of information sources for early signals of change, collecting those signals in a database, and exploring their possible implications for the future. The focus is often on external change in the broad contextual environment of a field or organization, i.e., the social, economic, technological, and governance domains. External change could be highly disruptive and is unlikely to be on the radar of decision makers. Early awareness of changes and monitoring their development over time can help natural resource planners, managers, and policymakers prepare for emerging challenges and opportunities. This paper introduces horizon scanning, characterizes different approaches and techniques, outlines the basic process, and briefly describes artificial intelligence in horizon scanning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The promotion of high-quality, environmentally sustainable practices in enterprises in the digital age has become an important topic in business and academic circles. In this study, by employing a perspective combining digital orientation (DO) and sustainability commitment orientation (SCO), the concept of digital sustainability orientation (DSO) is presented, and digital green capability (DGC) is introduced as the mediating variable. Moreover, the driving mechanism model of corporate environmental sustainability practice (ESP) is constructed, and the moderating role of environmental scanning (ES) is taken into consideration. Using two sets of research data from 353 manufacturing enterprises in China, the empirical test results show that DSO has a significant role in improving ESP, and DGC is important in mediating between DSO and ESP. ES acts as a moderating variable between DSO and DGC and further moderates the mediating role of DGC between DSO and EPS; that is, the stronger the ES, the more significant the mediating effect of DGC. The conclusion of this study broadens the application scope of strategic orientation theory in the study of digital sustainability and has theoretical and practical implications for exploring the development of DGC and the dynamic mechanism of ESP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to external information is considered crucial to achieving organizational ambidexterity (OA) while presenting specific challenges for SMEs due to their limited resources. However, little is known about how SMEs can best benefit from their external information‐seeking activities for OA purposes, given specific organizational practices. Our paper addresses this research gap by analyzing the effects of external information seeking (i.e., environmental scanning and external managerial networking) on OA while considering the moderating role of empowerment climate in SMEs. Based on a survey administered to CEOs of 1439 French manufacturing SMEs, our main results indicate that empowerment climate positively moderates the effect of scanning breadth on OA but negatively moderates the effect of networking depth. This suggests that SMEs should emphasize external information‐seeking activities that are appropriate to their level of empowerment climate so that the positive effects on OA can be fully realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the organizational strategies employed by Chinese multinational contractors (CMCCs) operating in the construction industry across Southern African countries. By integrating the resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capabilities theory (DCT), the study aims to uncover the factors contributing to CMCCs' competitive advantage and ability to achieve sustained success. Through a comprehensive analysis of micro- and macro-environmental factors, the study reveals the significant impact of the local context on CMCCs' contract acquisition. Factors such as GDP, population, infrastructure needs, and transparency index rankings shape the market dominance of CMCCs in different countries within the region. The research identifies ten organizational strategies employed by CMCCs that have led to their recent success in Southern Africa. These strategies encompass financial, legal, and technical aspects, including competitive pricing, long-term partnerships with suppliers, access to funding from the Chinese government, fragile adherence to compliance and anti-corruption policies, specialized sub-companies, training and development of human resources, and various contract agreements. Furthermore, the study highlights the importance of knowledge-based strategies for CMCCs' competitive advantage. The acquisition, transfer, and application of knowledge play a crucial role in adapting to local environments, continuous learning, innovation, and expertise development. The findings underscore the significance of considering political and cultural factors in the Southern African construction industry. CMCCs' ability to understand and adapt to the political and cultural context of the host country contributes to their successful operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We are currently amid multiple interconnected and complex crises within the different dimensions of our society--a polycrisis, and the future promises even greater complexity in terms of threats. However, the existing crisis typologies and crisis identification often have an introspective organisational focus and tend to concentrate on a limited set of historically known threats. This study takes an exploratory, futures studies-based approach with a broader societal perspective. Through environmental scanning using 1714 literature sources and consultations with 54 experts, we have identified 153 potential future crises spanning various societal domains. We utilize the PESTLE framework to outline the possible emergence of these crises. Our findings reveal a considerably larger number of potential crisis phenomena than previously proposed, aiming for objective sensemaking of the complex crisis landscape. The results also demonstrate crises vary in their temporal development, albeit evaluating this is challenging. This study challenges the prevalent myopic and subjective prioritisation-based crisis identification and provides a comprehensive yet comprehensible list of possible future crises. In the current context of siloed decision-making structures, both public and private organisations can use this list to enhance their future-oriented preparedness and assess their responsibilities in managing these crises, as well as identifying necessary stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Iran Future Studies / Āyandah/pizhūhī-i Īrān is the property of Imam Khomeini International University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Big data analytics has attracted significant scholarly attention over the past few years due to its critical role in directing organizational decision making. Big data analytics capabilities (BDAC) are increasingly being suggested to be of great help in providing competitive advantages to the firms across industrial settings. Although, prior research has examined the influence of BDAC from a technological perspective; there is a lack of a research from a broader strategic perspective. Correspondingly, this study builds on dynamic capabilities view to propose a conceptual model that investigates the direct and indirect effects between three dimensions of BDAC on environmental scanning and organization's strategic intent. This study adopted the questionnaire-based survey method to collect the data from 179 senior managers of pharmaceutical companies in Egypt. The results revealed that only the technological dimension of BDAC significantly affected the strategic intent only through supporting data-driven culture and organizational learning. The results also reveal that BDAC is positively associated with environmental scanning, which consequently affects strategic intent. Our results further reveal that environmental scanning mediates the relationship between BDAC and organization's strategic intent. The paper concludes by offering some valuable theoretical and practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Majority of the small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in Kenya are conventionally family businesses owing to their initial source of capital, ownership and day-to-day operations. Kenya's economy represents a feudal-like family economy dominated by a few well-capitalized family-owned units at both the top and mid-tier. Strategic management practices are usually geared towards increasing managerial efficiency and effectiveness so as to increase the current and future operations. The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of strategic management practices on the performance of family-owned manufacturing firms in Nairobi City County, Kenya. The specific objectives of the study included: environmental scanning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation and strategy evaluation and monitoring. Methodology: The study adopted descriptive research design using purposive sampling strategy targeting 4 heads of departments per firm from 20 firms yielding a total of 80 respondents. Structured questionnaires were used to collect primary data. Profitability ratio was collected using a secondary data collection sheet. Primary data was analyzed using SPSS version 25. Data was analyzed both descriptively as well as inferentially using and presented using statistical distribution tables. Findings: The results established that environmental scanning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation and strategy evaluation and monitoring positively and significantly affect the organizational performance of family-owned manufacturing firms. The results hence indicate that increasing each of the variable with one-unit results to increase in organizational performance of these firms with their respective beta values. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The study was anchored on the following theories: agency theory, transaction cost theory, transformational and stewardship theories. The study recommends that the family-owned manufacturing firms operating in Nairobi City County, Kenya to enhance their environmental scanning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation and strategy evaluation and monitoring practices since the practices positively and significantly affects organizational performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This study develops a research framework to examine the role of strategic foresight on organizational success at Jordanian financial services companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange. Design/Methodology/Approach - This study targeted the most important Jordanian financial services companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange, (171) questionnaires were retrieved, and responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and SMART PLS & SEMANN method. Finding - The findings indicated that three out of four dimensions of strategic foresight significantly impact organizational success, which are scenario planning, future vision, and environmental scanning. In contrast, the strategic choice did not have any significant impact on organizational success, and this was confirmed by testing the ANN model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risk and ambiguity, distinctive facets of environmental uncertainty, significantly influence a firm's disclosure decisions. In theoretical and empirical literature, risk disclosure emerges as a pivotal facet of interpretive disclosures within corporate financial reports, representing a rational response to uncertainty. Nonetheless, the mechanism guiding risk disclosure determinations amidst conditions of risk and uncertainty, while considering the equilibrium between agency advantages and costs, remains a gap within risk disclosure literature. This study investigates the nexus between risk disclosure and uncertainty at the corporate level, hinging upon business strategy and alertness criteria. Employing a multiple regression model, the research examines these hypotheses within firms listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange during the 2016-2021 period. The risk disclosure was assessed through content analysis of annual financial reports. The results demonstrate that firms pursuing the prospector-oriented strategy provide more risk disclosure than defender-oriented firms, aiming to mitigate information asymmetry and its agency benefits. Moreover, the findings illustrate that alert firms, through continual environmental scanning, diminish ambiguity cyclically, enhancing their comprehension of exposed risks and consequentially augmenting risk disclosure. In essence, this research underscores that a firm's strategic stance encompasses implications beyond operational and competitive domains, permeating financial reporting and risk disclosure determinations. Consequently, this study underscores the criticality of incorporating risk dimensions and environmental ambiguity into the interpretation and scrutiny of disclosure of risk related information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Les Cahiers du CREAD is the property of Centre de Rrecherche en Economie Appliquee pour Developpement and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Sustainable innovation now plays a leading role in the transformation and upgrading activities of enterprises, and the new business model is increasingly a typical form of innovation. Therefore, based on neo-institutional theory of organization, this study mainly analyzes the impact of cognitive schemas on new ventures' business model innovativeness by selecting new service industry enterprises as the research object and referring to data from the China Statistical Yearbook and "China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Index". In addition, we entrusted professional market research companies and business incubators to collect 142 valid questionnaires. The results show that general cognitive schema negatively affects business model innovativeness, while specific cognitive schema positively affects it. Specifically, general cognitive schema reduces the level of effort and sustainability of entrepreneurial environmental scanning activities, which is not conducive to the design of highly innovative business models; specific cognitive schema not only improves the level of effort and sustainability of entrepreneurial environmental scanning activities, but also drives the entrepreneurs to pay more attention to new information outside the industry, which is conducive to the design of a highly innovative business model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban shrinkage poses significant challenges to Real Estate markets in Shrinking Cities and has multiple negative impacts on society, environment and economy. Although major cities are growing rapidly, a significant volume of building stock and population will endure in shrinking cities in the future. To enhance the resilience of local real estate markets and communities, forces that offer novel possibilities for shrinking cities should be actively studied. This study deepens understanding of the forces affecting the real estate market environments of Shrinking Cities by examining the public discourse and the perceptions of local market participants, both of which steer future market development. To identify and analyse these forces, an environmental scanning method was employed, using as data sources 872 Finnish newspaper articles and 45 interviews with market actors in eight Shrinking Cities in Finland. The results categorise the identified forces under three themes that describe the drivers of future market development. The findings indicate that, although the Real Estate markets of Shrinking Cities face challenges, forces such as telecommuting, multi-local living and emerging industries may offer new opportunities and slow urban shrinkage. The findings may be utilised to steer the development of Shrinking Cities in a more resilient direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a knowledge-based customer-centric strategic model to respond to environmental challenges and achieve sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) in the supply chain management (SCM) context. The proposed model strives to leverage knowledge-based distinctive core competencies (DCCs) to improve customer satisfaction and achieve SCA. An exploratory research design has been adopted. The study undertook a systematic literature review approach with 36 articles or books published between 1970 and 2020 to construct the strategic planning model. The paper presents an integrated multi-dimensional model for SCM, including value chain activities, competitiveness strategies, business process re-engineering (BPR), and SCA. The practical result of the article is to develop a theoretical strategic planning model for SCM as a holistic framework for using the company's DCCs and creating an SCA in a highly competitive and dynamic business environment. The proposed model comprehensively covers the supply chain (SC)'s competitive advantage strategy. For businesses that tend to adapt and triumph, the proposed model helps reduce order cycle times, reduce inventory levels, increase accuracy and efficiency, reduce costs, and improve customer service and satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A substantial part of the work conducted by librarians at Swedish regional libraries concerns staying alert and informed in ways that allow for continuous development of the kind of knowledge and abilities that are required for doing a qualified job, but this part of the work is elusive and hard to identify. This paper presents an empirical study that elucidates this specific kind of work of keeping abreast and updated with professional information. Empirical data were produced through interviews and logbooks with 10 members of staff at 4 regional libraries in Sweden. The data were analysed by employing Marcia Bates' model of different information-seeking modes. The results of the study show that the activity in focus is seamlessly intertwined with other work activities and enacted in a variety of ways that are adapted after other work tasks (than the information seeking in itself) and dependent on individual preferences and routines. Since there is a certain conception of this activity as something that should be carried out in a certain systematic way and since it is something that one as a librarian ought to be good at, it is furthermore often associated with a normative dimension that provokes a sense of guilt among the study participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic's characteristics, including how quickly it spread, and the emergence of new virus variations, raise serious questions about the pandemic's potential repercussions and complications in the food and beverage industry, among other industries. The global COVID-19 pandemic highlights the pressing need to reconsider how we manufacture and market food and beverage goods. During the epidemic, SMEs must build organizational resilience (OR) in order to recover economically, socially, and communally. Relational capital (RC) is a crucial factor that can be deployed by SMEs to acquire the resources existing in the external networks to adapt to disturbances; however, the impact of RC on the resilience of Egyptian food and beverage SMEs is under-examined. Additionally, it is unclear how RC promotes organizational resilience. In this regard, we argue that social interactions and regular communication can let an SME and its business partners exchange information and best practices, thereby enabling it to immediately establish backup plans to deal with the disruption. In order to achieve our aim, we investigated how relational capital affected organizational resilience both directly and indirectly through environmental scanning, utilizing partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS--SEM).The results from 217 Egyptian food and beverage SMEs demonstrate that relational capital directly and positively affected organizational resilience. Besides, the RC--OR relationship is partially mediated by environmental scanning. Our current study, therefore, adds to the extant literature through being one of the few studies to address the topics of relational capital and resilience altogether during crisis times within a developing country, an issue that has not been sufficiently investigated in exiting literature. Moreover, our current study is the first one to empirically investigate the role of relational capital in facilitating environmental scanning activities of SMEs to ultimately foster their resilience. Our results, thus, prove that a large amount of information relevant for recovery are inherent within an SME's external relations network. We provide implications for theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of AdBispreneur: Jurnal Pemikiran dan Penelitian Administrasi Bisnis dan Kewirausahaan is the property of AdBispreneur: Jurnal Pemikiran dan Penelitian Administrasi Bisnis dan Kewirausahaan and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The HTA progress requires analyses of existing and forthcoming needs as well as the development of tools meeting these needs. The proposed research presents hierarchical scheme for HTA development created based on Environmental Scanning and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The scheme presents the overall prognosis of HTA development indicating the key blocks of needs and relevant tools. Each of these tools are considered to be exclusively important for HTA development. Local registries are considered to be the priority for further HTA improving meeting more needs and providing less risks comparing to other tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of The Iraqi University is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We examined perceived strategic uncertainty (PSU) and environmental scanning among Hong Kong, Nigerian, and U.S. executives. We posit that PSU and scanning will vary in ways that can be explained by the different institutional contexts, that is, the national environment, within which the decision-makers are embedded. We found that Nigerian decision-makers perceived greater strategic uncertainty in the political/legal, economic, and sources of resources sectors. Hong Kong and U.S. executives, however, perceived greater levels of uncertainty in the technology sector. Furthermore, U.S. decision-makers perceived greater strategic uncertainty in the socio-cultural sector. We discuss the research and managerial implications of the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between social media and sensing capability for supply chain management (SCM) from an environmental scanning perspective. The authors consider upstream supply and downstream customer markets as two aspects of social media-enabled environmental scanning (SMES). The moderating effects of three uncertainties are explored. Design/methodology/approach: The data were collected from 178 supply chain professionals through a survey. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) were used to analyze the data. Findings: SMES in both supply and customer markets enhance sensing capability. Interestingly, the results reveal an accelerating effect on sensing by the incremental effort of SMES-supply. However, that of SMES-customer leads to a decelerating outcome for sensing. Also, uncertainties, especially the demand- and technology-related, play a series of interacting effects according to SMES levels. Research limitations/implications: This research contributes to the literature of operations and supply chains regarding social media strategies and dynamic capabilities. It opens the black box of environmental scanning behavior on social media and adds new knowledge on the dynamic influence of such behavior toward organizational sensing capability for SCM. In addition, further understanding on supply chain uncertainty as a moderator is also strengthened through this research. Originality/value: This research is the first to empirically uncover the effect of social media on sensing capability for SCM through the lens of environmental scanning. The results support the employment of social networking for improving supply and demand sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to examine the way top managers scan environmental conditions to diagnose and interpret issues during periods of crisis. Despite each of these processes being widely and individually represented in the research literature, there is a lack of integrative models that examine their internal dynamics in-depth. In this study, structural equation modeling methodology (EQS 6.3) was applied to a sample of 120 top managers to examine how the cognitive orientation of scanning (rational vs. intuitive analysis of environment) may influence final issue categorizations. Results confirm that not only is procedural rationality needed when scanning the environment, as traditional arguments have posited, but also that intuition plays a relevant role, complementing rational processes and configuring a mixed set of competencies to assess different issue dimensions, such as favorability, urgency, and influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The publication is critical for academic credibility. Yet there is a lack of diversity in scholarly publications, and many scholars struggle to succeed in academic publishing. Publication and citation rates are dominated by particular individuals, institutions, countries, and blocs of countries. But, while methods for success in the "publication game" are known, they are less accessible to all cohorts. The purpose of this research was to develop and promulgate methods for improving publication rates across more diverse academic communities, including, but not limited to, those academic communities associated with this conference. The research used two complementary methods for knowledge development and consolidation often used in the applied social sciences: (1) environmental scanning; and (2) the Delphi technique. Environmental scanning is used when information is scattered widely. We used the Delphi technique to consolidate the knowledge of the authors, all of whom have worked as authors, editors, and reviewers, and who between them have over a thousand publications with over 13,000 citations. We grouped the skills required to increase publication rates into six interrelated categories: (1) writing volume; (2) writing quality; (3) collaborative publications; (4) institutional responsibilities; (5) publication strategies; and (6) diverse authorial voices. Each category was further expanded with tactics that can be adapted for workshops on academic writing. Academic writing requires particular skills and the discipline to practice these skills. The skills for academic writing can and must be made accessible across all cohorts if we are to achieve diversity in academic publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Economic Sciences, Management & Commercial Sciences (JESMCS) is the property of Association of Arab Universities and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objective: The environment of most sports organizations is increasingly uncertain and the goals are so moving that they are difficult to achieve. In addition, traditional approaches to strategic planning in the face of chaos and environmental uncertainty are not flexible and do not respond well. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify and develop an environmental model affecting the strategic foresight of Iranian sports based on the STEEPELD and to determine the key drivers. In fact, this study seeks to identify which drivers can be effective in achieving the desired future of Iranian sports. Method: The present study is practical, qualitative and survey. The statistical population was faculty members of sports management with associate degree and higher who were selected by combined sampling. To adjust for environmental factors, a 61-item questionnaire was designed that convergent validity (0.622) and its composite reliability coefficient (0.868) were confirmed. The statistical methods used include: descriptive statistics, structural equation modeling (PLS) and Friedman ranking. Findings: The results showed that the research model was approved by experts with a GOF = 0.745. Also, international trade, integration in sports management, development of sports philosophy, increase of sports standard per capita, increase of social capital, environmental policies, expansion of mass media and social networks and development of regulations Legal were identified as key drivers of the strategic foresight of Iranian sports. Conclusion: Therefore, the model developed in this study can be effective as a guide in estimating the future of sports organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, harmful algal blooms (HABs) are on the rise, as is evidence of their toxicity. The impacts associated with blooms, however, vary across Nation states, as do the strategies and protocols to assess, monitor, and manage their occurrence. In Canada, water quality guidelines are standardized nationally, but the management strategies for HABs are not. Here, we explore current strategies to understand how to better communicate risks associated with HABs to the public. Our team conducted an environmental scan on provincial and territorial government agency protocols around HABs. Results suggest that there are variations in the monitoring, managing, and communicating of risk to the public: British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Quebec have well-established inter-agency protocols, and most provinces report following federal guidelines for water quality. Notably, 3 northern territories have no HABs monitoring or management protocols in place. More populous provinces use a variety of information venues (websites, social media, on site postings, and radio) to communicate risks associated with HABs, whereas others' communications are limited. To induce more collaboration on HABs monitoring and management and reduce the associated risks, creating a coherent system with consistent messaging and inter-agency communication is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of the lower limit of filling of the pore throat in tight sandstone reservoirs is an essential part of reservoir evaluation. It can guide exploration and development and helps understand tight oil accumulation and estimate saturation. Determining this lower limit of pore throat filling has mainly been based on experience in a particular reservoir or field, and there is a lack of theoretical and experimental support. In this paper, the lower limit of pore throat filling of the tight sandstone reservoir in the Gaotaizi oil layer in the Zijia area is theoretically derived. Experiments show that oil charging at the source-reservoir interface is affected by the increasing pressure within the reservoir due to hydrocarbon generation. Based on the equilibrium relationship between the hydrodynamic effects and the actual reservoir parameters, the theoretical derivation of the lower limit of the pore throat diameter at the source-reservoir interface is 23.6 nm. The mechanical mechanism of the internal charging of the reservoir is different from the source-reservoir interface. In this paper, the lower limit of the pore throat filling in the Gaotaizi reservoir is 54.45 nm based on environmental scanning electron miscopy and the energy spectrum. Combined with the analysis of mercury injection tests, the lower limit of the filling pore throat is used to determine that oil saturation near the source-reservoir interface is 33%, and 19% within the reservoir. The results of the study on the lower limit of pore throat filling in different parts of the reservoir provide a theoretical basis and prediction method for the distribution and target evaluation of tight oil sandstone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theoretical and practical impact of dynamic capabilities on organizational performance remains elusive. This study investigates the mediating role of a firm's dynamic capabilities, measured by IT capability and environmental scanning. In addition, by proposing that knowledge management (KM) strategies play a crucial moderating role in the relationships between entrepreneurial orientation (EO), dynamic capabilities, and organizational performance, this study highlights the need for effective KM strategies to maximize organizational performance. A questionnaire was administered to Korean managers who understand and can answer overall characteristics of their organizations. Our study found that dynamic capabilities partially mediated the relationship between EO and organizational performance. In addition, our findings show that the relationship between EO and organizational performance is stronger when firms emphasize personalization KM strategies, while the firms focusing on codification KM strategies demonstrate a stronger relationship between IT capability and organizational performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, harmful algal blooms (HABs) are on the rise, as is evidence of their toxicity. The impacts associated with blooms, however, vary across Nation states, as do the strategies and protocols to assess, monitor, and manage their occurrence. In Canada, water quality guidelines are standardized nationally, but the management strategies for HABs are not. Here, we explore current strategies to understand how to better communicate risks associated with HABs to the public. Our team conducted an environmental scan on provincial and territorial government agency protocols around HABs. Results suggest that there are variations in the monitoring, managing, and communicating of risk to the public: British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Quebec have well-established inter-agency protocols, and most provinces report following federal guidelines for water quality. Notably, 3 northern territories have no HABs monitoring or management protocols in place. More populous provinces use a variety of information venues (websites, social media, on site postings, and radio) to communicate risks associated with HABs, whereas others' communications are limited. To induce more collaboration on HABs monitoring and management and reduce the associated risks, creating a coherent system with consistent messaging and inter-agency communication is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Accounting & Financial Studies Journal is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate two seminal market-scanning frameworks – the five-forces analysis and PESTEL environmental scanning tool – to assess their readiness for anticipating market-shaping acts. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on the market-shaping literature that conceptualizes markets as complex adaptive systems, this conceptual paper interrogates the underlying assumptions and "blind spots" in two seminal market-scanning frameworks. The paper showcases three illustrative vignettes in which non-industry actors catalyzed market change in ways that these market-scanning frameworks would not be able to anticipate. Findings: Marketing strategists can be "blindsided" as seminal market-scanning frameworks have either too narrow an interpretation of market change or are too broad to anticipate specific types of market-shaping acts. The assumptions about markets that underpin these market-scanning frameworks contribute to incumbents being slow to realize market-shaping acts are taking place. Research limitations/implications: The authors extend market-scanning to include a type of managerial myopia that fails to register the socially embedded, systemic nature of complex contemporary markets. Furthermore, the paper provides an "actors-agendas-outcomes" scanning framework that offers awareness of market-shaping acts. Originality/value: This paper is the first to consider market-scanning frameworks from a market-shaping perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to explore how firms can design their government affairs (GAs) units in ways that improve their ability to monitor and influence legislative developments in their firms' corporate political environments. Design/methodology/approach: This conceptual work is informed by existing research into organizational design, brought to life with illustrative examples of firms' political actions derived from interviews conducted with practitioners in the field. Findings: In line with organizational design thinking, the authors find that high-performing GA units need to be designed and built using a blend of mutually reinforcing organizational mechanisms. GA units should be staffed by autonomous managers with mixed skills-sets. Moreover, they should not be constrained by formal rules, but instead given autonomy and support to create lateral relations with other business units. Practical implications: This study provides a "recipe" that managers can follow to create opportunities for the exchange of political information within their firms and enable and motivate GAs practitioners to monitor and influence political developments more effectively. Originality/value: This research exposes important, organizational antecedents of firms' political strategies, which have not been systematically explored in the existing literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the awareness-motivation-capability framework, this research examines how firm-level factors (environmental scanning and organizational slack) individually and collectively interact with institutional factors (government support and industry competition) to influence a firm's adoption of green management. Moreover, we distinguish the impacts of green management on financial performance and innovation performance. The empirical findings reveal that environmental scanning and organizational slack facilitate green management, government support strengthens these positive relationships, and industry competition attenuates the effect of environmental scanning on green management. In addition, green management enhances innovation performance to a greater extent than financial performance. This research provides an integrative framework illustrating how firm-level factors and institutional environments influence green decisions and proposes that green management may impact firm performance measures in distinctive ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By applying the Linguistic Category Model (LCM) in crisis communication, this study explores the potential of verb tracking on social media to examine how linguistic categories can elucidate the intentional and/or unintentional communication of crisis attribution frames. Through a content analysis, linguistic categories used in both media posts reporting three clusters of crisis and public comments on Facebook were examined. Results indicated that linguistic abstraction in both media post and public comments describing the crisis varied based on crisis cluster, suggesting that the level of linguistic abstraction reflected perceived attribution of responsibility through stability, locus and controllability. Language used to describe preventable crisis tend to be more abstract than those used to describe accidental and victim crisis. Findings of this study empirically tested the integration of LCM in crisis communication and implied potential application of LCM in building automated environmental scanning and crisis prediction systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Companies' environments change constantly and very quickly, so each company must be aligned with its environment and understand what is happening to maintain and improve its performance. To constantly adapt to its environment, the company must integrate a learning process in relation to what is happening and become a "learning company." This posture will ensure organizational effectiveness in relation to changes in the environment and allow companies to achieve goals under the best conditions. Our project aims at delivering a competitive and collective intelligence service allowing to support decision making processes through the diagnostic of alignment between internal knowledge of the organization and available external information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study was conducted to provide a strategic direction to public hospitals in Iran via environmental scanning in order to equip hospitals to plan and perform proactively and adapt with the everchanging environment. Results: A mixed method study including in-depth interview and survey were used to determine influential environmental factors based on PESTLE (political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental) and Douglas West framework to determine the effectiveness and feasibility of factors. Issues identified at micro environmental level were over prescription, inequality in distribution of healthcare services and high demands for luxurious health services. Issues identified at the macro environmental level were related to changes in disease patterns, inappropriate hospital budgeting, economic sanctions, government corruption and healthcare centralization. In order to tackle the issues identified, it is paramount to enhance bed distribution management, improve strategic policies for a more equitable payment system, and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of services by implementing a strategic inventory control. Furthermore, the considerable impact of economic sanctions on financial resources of Iranian hospitals should not be ignored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Research Summary: We add to the literature examining the ownership‐innovation relationship by examining two major investor types: corporate investors and family investors. We use organizational environmental scanning as a new perspective to understand how these investors' capabilities influence firms' external cooperation and innovation performance. We found that corporate investors with broad investment experience strengthen a firm's environmental scanning, enhancing innovation performance by increasing the number of external cooperation activities the firm engages in. Conversely, family investors' broad investment experience tend to be negatively associated with the number of external cooperation and with firm innovation. Our results show that investors influence firm innovation not simply through a monitoring role but also by affecting firms' abilities to innovate, once we factor in the types of investors and their capabilities. Managerial Summary: We investigate how two different types of investors, corporate and family, influence the innovation performance of publicly‐traded high‐tech firms in Taiwan. We found that the presence of major corporate investors with broad investment experience enhances firms' innovation performance by increasing external cooperation activities firms engage in. Corporate investors appear to enhance organizations' environmental scanning abilities and, in turn, their innovation performance. Conversely, family investors' broad investment experience is negatively associated with firm innovation because such firms engage in fewer external cooperation activities. A focus on control and social cohesion in family firms appears to decrease the emphasis on external knowledge acquisition when family investors have broad investment experience. In summary, our results show that investors' breadth of investment experience influences firms' ability to innovate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamics and speed of change in corporate environments have increased. At the front-end of innovation, firms are challenged to evaluate growing amounts of information within shorter time frames in order to stay competitive. Either they spend significant time on structured data analysis, at the risk of delayed market launch, or they follow their intuition, at the risk of not meeting market trends. Both scenarios constitute a significant risk for a firm's continued existence.Motivated by this, a conceptual model is presented in this paper that aims at remediating these risks. Grounded on design science methodology, it concentrates on previous assessments of innovation search fields. These innovation search fields assist in environmental scanning and lay the foundation for deciding which opportunities to pursue. The model applies a novel AI-based approach, which draws on natural language processing and information retrieval. To provide decision support, the approach includes market-, technology-, and firm-related criteria. This allows us to replace intuitive decision-making by fact-based considerations. In addition, an often-iterative approach for environmental scanning is replaced by a more straightforward process. Early testing of the conceptual model has shown results of increased quality and speed of decision-making. Further testing and feedback is still required to enhance and calibrate the AI-functionality. Applied in business environments, the approach can contribute to remediate fuzziness in early front-end activities, thus helping direct innovation managers to "do the right things". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article reports on a research effort that looked at the future of agricultural financing in Sub-Saharan Africa, and provides governments in the region with key insights into agricultural development and the rural agricultural financing challenges. In the process of knowledge creation, a mixed-method approach was followed, with the futures triangle, emerging issues analysis, and causal layered analysis (CLA) being used to deepen the level of understanding regarding the future of agricultural financing. In addition, a real-time Delphi study was conducted to validate and prioritize the emerging trends and driving forces, and to incorporate expert knowledge into the possible financing futures. Four scenarios are presented that aim to stimulate new thoughts on policies that can facilitate increased financial inclusion in agricultural development in Sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]