Insights Between Environmental Scanning Activities and Porter's Generic Strategies: An Empirical Analysis

Abstract

This study explored the relationships between the environmental scanning activities of chief executives from a single industry and their organizations' strategies, on the premise that executives employing different types of Porter's generic business-level strategies would use different scanning activities. There were differences in the strategy-scanning linkages. Specifically there are indications that firms with a differentiation strategy tend to employ a scanning activity that places more importance on evaluating opportunities and customer attitudes. Firms with a cost leadership strategy tend to use a scanning activity that evaluates competitive threats and tracks the policies and tactics of competitors.