Title: Environmental scanning literature – past, present and future research propositions

Authors: Ho Yin Wong; Jia-Yi Hung

Addresses: Deakin Graduate School of Business, Faculty of Business and Law, Deakin University, 70 Elgar Road, Burwood, VIC 3125, Australia. ' Department of Health Administration, Tzu Chi College of Technology, 880, Sec.2, Chien-Kuo Rd., Hualien 970, Taiwan

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to establish research propositions that can potentially fill research gaps in the literature of environmental scanning. Major databases such as ABI/INFORM, and Emerald have been searched to gather literature. The literature on environmental scanning is reviewed with an aim to identify patterns in scanning practices as well as research gaps in the extant literature. Three major phases of the development and three main characteristics of the literature have been identified. Four propositions are suggested to fill the research gaps in the literature of the environmental scanning practices; namely, firm characteristics, market orientation, and top management cognition perspective. Further empirical research is needed to test the four propositions in order to provide a full picture for the environmental scanning literature. The contributions of this paper are: 1) the revelation of the evolution of the environmental scanning literature; 2) the identification of research gaps in the environmental scanning literature; 3) the establishment of propositions through which future research can further the knowledge of environmental scanning.

Keywords: environmental scanning; market orientation; top management cognition; strategic planning; born global firms; literature review; firm characteristics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBE.2012.044926

International Journal of Business Environment, 2012 Vol.5 No.1, pp.30 - 50

Received: 10 Jun 2011
Accepted: 25 Jul 2011

Published online: 28 Aug 2014 *

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