CEOS, INFORMATION, AND DECISION-MAKING - SCANNING THE ENVIRONMENT FOR STRATEGIC ADVANTAGE

CEOs SCAN THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT for information about events and trends in order to plan their organizations' future courses of action. This study investigates how CEOs in the Canadian publishing and telecommunications industries acquire and use information about the business environment. The uncertainty of the environment was found to be related to the amount of scanning done. The perceived quality of information sources and the environmental uncertainty accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in source use. Information about the environment was often used in making decisions concerning organizational improvements and business strategies.