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Environmental Uncertainty (environmental + uncertainty)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	80%
Life Sciences	20%

Selected Abstracts

Environmental Uncertainty and Strategic Supply Management: A Resource Dependence Perspective and Performance Implications

JOURNAL OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2007
Antony Paulraj
SUMMARY Environmental uncertainty plays a crucial role in the implementation of strategic supply management initiatives. The current study adopts the resource dependence theory to explain the direct effect of supply chain uncertainties on strategic supply management, operationalized as a second-order construct comprising strategic purchasing, long-term relationship orientation, interfirm communication, cross-organizational teams and supplier integration. Using structural equation modeling, the 200-firm sample provided evidence that strategic supply management is driven by supply and technology uncertainty. Demand uncertainty, on the other hand, was not found to have a significant impact on strategic supply management. Findings further support the link between strategic supply management and the performance of both buying and supplying firms. [source]

Perceived Environmental Uncertainty, Entry Mode Choice and Satisfaction with EC-MNC Performance

BRITISH JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2000
Lance Eliot Brouthers
Previous theoretical and empirical research provides substantial support for a contingency approach toward international entry-mode selection. Similarly, additional empirical research supports the notion that different international ownership-based entry modes tend to be associated with varying performance levels. In this study we provide an initial attempt to use Werner, Brouthers and Brouthers' (1996) multiple measures of Perceived Environmental Uncertainty (PEU) to determine the entry mode choices of firms and link these risk-adjusted mode choices to managerial satisfaction with firm performance. We hypothesize and find that firms which make PEU risk-adjusted entry mode choices are significantly more satisfied with their firm's performance than firms whose entry mode choices cannot be predicted using multiple PEU risk measures. [source]

Environmental Uncertainty and Strategic Supply Management: A Resource Dependence Perspective and Performance Implications

Reproduction of an early-flowering Mediterranean mountain narrow endemic (Armeria caespitosa) in a contracting mountain island

PLANT BIOLOGY, Issue 4 2009
R. García-Camacho
Abstract Reproduction at population lower edges is important for plant species persistence, especially in populations on contracting high-mountain islands. In this context, the ability of plants to reproduce in different microhabitats seems to be important to guarantee seed production in stressful environments, such as Mediterranean high mountains. We hypothesised that the warmer and drier conditions at the lower edge would be deleterious for the reproduction of Armeria caespitosa, an early-flowering plant. In addition, reproductive plasticity along this mountain gradient may also be microhabitat-dependent. We studied factors affecting the reproductive success of A. caespitosa, an endemic of the Spanish Sistema Central. We considered a complex set of predictors, including phenology, plant size and environmental factors at different scales using generalised estimating equations and generalised linear models. Microhabitat, together with the position in the altitudinal gradient and inter-annual variability affected the reproduction of A. caespitosa. In addition, individuals with longer flowering periods (duration of flowering) had significantly lower fruit set and a higher number of unviable seeds; delayed flowering peaks favoured the production of both viable and unviable fruits. Microhabitat variability over an altitudinal range is relevant for the reproduction of A. caespitosa, and is more important at the lower edge of the altitudinal range, where the species faces the most adverse conditions. In addition, the ability to reproduce in different microhabitats might increase the chances of the species to cope with environmental uncertainties under on-going climate warming. Finally, reproduction of this early-flowering plant is constrained by summer drought, which might shape its reproductive phenology. [source]

Patchy distribution of flexible genetic elements in bacterial populations mediates robustness to environmental uncertainty

FEMS MICROBIOLOGY ECOLOGY, Issue 3 2008
Holger Heuer
Abstract The generation and maintenance of genetic variation seems to be a general ecological strategy of bacterial populations. Thereby they gain robustness to irregular environmental change, which is primarily the result of the dynamic evolution of biotic interactions. A benefit of maintaining population heterogeneity is that only a fraction of the population has to bear the cost of not (yet) beneficial deviation. On evolutionary time frames, an added value of the underlying mechanisms is evolvability, i.e. the heritable ability of an evolutionary lineage to generate and maintain genetic variants that are potentially adaptive in the course of evolution. Horizontal gene transfer is an important mechanism that can lead to differences between individuals within bacterial populations. Broad host-range plasmids foster this heterogeneity because they are typically present in only a fraction of the population and provide individual cells with genetic modules newly acquired from other populations or species. We postulate that the benefit of robustness on population level could balance the cost of transfer and replication functions that plasmids impose on their hosts. Consequently, mechanisms that make a subpopulation conducive to specific conjugative plasmids may have evolved, which could explain the persistence of even cryptic plasmids that do not encode any traits. [source]

Uncertainty and Information Search Activities: A Study of Owner,Managers of Small High-Technology Manufacturing Firms

JOURNAL OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2003
Jeffrey E. McGee
This study examines the relationship among perceived strategic uncertainty (PSU), environmental scanning, and the information sources used by owner,managers of a sample of 153 small high-technology manufacturing firms. The results suggest that increased scanning activities are associated with high levels of PSU. Perhaps most importantly, the results also suggest that owner,managers of younger firms respond to uncertainty differently than their counterparts in more mature firms. Specifically, owner,managers of younger firms appear to respond to higher PSU by relying more heavily on personal and external information sources. Owner,managers of older firms, on the other hand, rely more heavily on internal and impersonal information sources to address environmental uncertainty. [source]

Technological Scanning by Small Canadian Manufacturers

JOURNAL OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2001
Louis Raymond
Given that in many industries new production and information technologies have fundamentally changed the way in which firms must operate and compete, the technological aspect of environmental scanning has become a critical success factor for many small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises. As little is presently known about how technological scanning manifests itself in these organizations and about what determines the nature and level of this activity, a survey study of 324 Canadian firms was done. Testing a research model resulted in identifying four interrelated dimensions of scanning activity, namely scanning objectives, type of information, information sources, and management practices. Key determinants of this activity were also identified, including the firms' strategy, environmental uncertainty, production technology, level of R&D, information networks, and the owner-manager's education level. [source]

A transaction cost perspective on why, how, and when cash impacts firm performance

MANAGERIAL AND DECISION ECONOMICS, Issue 7 2009
Jonathan P. O'Brien
While both financial and behavioral theories suggest that cash holdings may be beneficial to R&D-intensive firms, agency theory would suggest that strong monitoring may be needed to ensure that cash holdings are not squandered. We contend that transaction cost economics provides a valuable lens for understanding the performance implications of cash holdings because not only does it explicate the benefits and costs of cash holdings in a single unified theoretical framework, but it further clarifies how environmental uncertainty critically moderates these relationships. Empirical tests on a large sample of US corporations yield strong support for our theory. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Regionalizing Healthcare in Alberta: Legislated Change, Uncertainty and Loose Coupling

BRITISH JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, Issue 2003
C. R. Hinings
In this paper,we examine the re-organizing attempts of the Alberta government in healthcare from the viewpoint of uncertainty,loose coupling and the frequently unrecognized consequences of such change. We suggest that our understanding of change processes can be enhanced by conceptualizing the impact of task and environmental uncertainty through the nature of coupling between organizational elements.Based on our .ndings,we propose that the greater the degree of loose coupling in an organization,the more di .cult change is likely to be,and the more likely the occurrence of unanticipated consequences. [source]