Environmental Scanning Systems Research Articles

Bridging foresight and evaluation: A bridge worth building

AbstractFocusing on and supporting the integration of two overlapping but siloed disciplines is an exciting but uncertain endeavor. We can anticipate ambiguity in that it is an exploratory activity, as well as novelty in that we don't know exactly where we are going until we get there. However, we are sure it is worth the effort. As evidenced by the papers in this volume, evaluation and futures studies are two disciplines that have much to offer one another. Evaluation can inform the quality and effectiveness of foresight initiatives, such as whether an environmental scanning system surfaces signals of change that supports organizational long‐term thinking and preparedness. Systematically thinking about the future can free evaluation from being a primarily hindsight‐based discipline and activity and enable it to play a more active role in informing strategy and decision‐making that benefits evaluators, clients, and the program. Looking across this volume's papers, and beyond, we identify themes important to advancing foresight evaluation thinking and practice. In particular, we focus on how foresight thinking and methods can inform evaluation practice (and vice versa), the foresight capacity required on the part of evaluators, and the evaluation capacity that foresight practitioners currently have. Additionally, we provide some observations on gaps and challenges, and recommend ways that evaluators can look inward and outward to advance their foresight evaluation practice.

The Measuring of the Strategical Business Management in the Real Estate Agency Industry in Beijing, China

Background and Aim: China's economic reforms cause uncertainty, decelerating output, investment, and employment rates, with the real estate sector being the primary focus. This research aims to measure the opinion level of strategic business management in the Real Estate Agency Industry in Beijing, China, and to study the guideline for improving strategic business management in the Real Estate Agency Industry in Beijing, China. Materials and Methods: This research paper observes the quantitative research methodology. The study will encompass a total of 45 firms operating in the real estate agency industry in Beijing. The present study utilized a questionnaire as a data collection tool. The statistical parameters, including the mean and standard deviation, were employed for the purpose of data analysis and to ascertain the data presented. Results: The Beijing real estate agency industry has moderate opinions on strategic management, with moderate scores in evaluation and control, implementation, formulation, and environmental scanning. The study aims to improve strategic business management, focusing on environmental scanning, mission statement, objectives, processes, and control systems. Conclusion: Beijing real estate agency industry moderates strategic management, focusing on environmental scanning, mission statement, objectives, processes, and control systems. The business strategical management data promotes innovation and communication through compliments and awards. Internal procedures should focus on improving customer service and employee skills, even if data shows business performance is good.

Role of environmental ownership and associated parameters to assess green patents in technologies with environmental scanning system as a controlling factor

There is a general conception that environmental firms are more adapted to green solutions, and environmental patents are just lagging. The existing literature has paid particular attention to identifying obstacles and situational factors associated with established firms going green and has concentrated on how and why established businesses are becoming more financially viable and ecologically sustainable. In changing environment, manufacturing companies are direct contributors to environmental impacts. Increased awareness of consumers about the environment puts a handful amount of pressure on manufacturing companies to care about the environment. It also asserts unseen pressure on the financial performance of the companies. Therefore, it is time to go for green patenting of such firms while satisfying the eco-innovation and environmental scanning process. Moreover, Environmental ownership and its associated parameters keenly monitor this aspect. This paper evaluates the performance of the support vector machine (SVM/SVR) approach for estimating patents in environment-related technologies (PERT) in China from 1995 to 2021. For this work, six independent variables related to environmental ownership and environment-related technologies were selected, which include medium and high-tech exports (MHTE), green patents applicants (GPA), listed domestic companies (LDC), human capital index (HCI), self-employment (SE), and manufacturing value added in GDP (MVA). Data for dependent and independent variables were gathered from the World Bank (WB) official data bank portal. To make an initial understanding of the data basic statistical summary was computed in R programming to see the mean, minimum and maximum values in the data set. A correlation matrix plot showed the association between dependent and independent variables. SVM/SVR with radial basis function (RBF) regression was applied to see the impact of contributing parameters that influence PERT. For PERT, the model generated 0.95 R2 (RMSE = 92.43). The results of the SVR showed that the association among environmental parameters is strong. With a value of 4.82, the strongest coefficient in the SVR model is PAR. This work is novel and will benefit the manufacturing sector, analysts, policymakers, environmentalists as how green patenting can boost the eco innovation and environmental ownership and scanning system with advance technologies and practices.

Improving automated crisis detection via an improved understanding of crisis language: Linguistic categories in social media crises

AbstractBy 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.

Risques et Rôles en PME Exportatrice : La Notion De Veille Stratégique

This paper focuses on analyzing the contribution of Environmental Scanning System to the risk management of the export operations of SME. From a methodological point of view, we have mobilized a theoretical exploration based on a meta-analysis research concerning the risks faced by SME exporters and the efficient role to set up the Environmental Scanning System for these business units. The results of this research allow us to determine the benefits of this Environmental scanning on these companies

Using environmental scanning to collect strategic information: A South African survey

This article investigates the extent of environmental scanning activities at South African enterprises. The literature review discusses environmental scanning variables and steps in the environmental scanning process. In the empirical survey a questionnaire was e-mailed to the CEOs of 1000 South African enterprises, on 20 March 2015 asking them to return the questionnaire before 30 April and a response rate of 32.5% was achieved. Ninety five per cent of the respondents indicated that they regarded the competitive situation in South Africa as intense or very intense and most respondents were convinced that they coped above average with changes in the business environment. Only 30% of respondents had a separate environmental scanning department and only 27% had a formal environmental scanning system. Annual reports, market research reports, newspapers and trade journals were the most important secondary information sources, while customers, sales staff and suppliers were the most important primary information sources. All entities responding used competitor analysis, industry macro-environmental analysis and SWOT analysis to analyse environmental information.

Improving Environmental Scanning Systems Using Bayesian Networks

AbstractAs companies’ environment is becoming increasingly volatile, scanning systems gain in importance. We propose a hybrid process model for such systems’ information gathering and interpretation tasks that combines quantitative information derived from regression analyses and qualitative knowledge from expert interviews. For the latter, we apply Bayesian networks. We derive the need for such a hybrid process model from a literature review. We lay out our model to find a suitable set of business environment indicators to forecast a company’s key financials. Deriving lessons learned from a prototype in the industrial sector, we evaluate the utility of our model following the design science research paradigm. We find our model to especially convince in completeness, transparency and transportability when compared with “pure” mathematical models.

Effects of Environmental Scanning and Structural Analysis Systems on Long-Term Strategic Planning: Syrian Wheat Production as a Case Study

Environmental scanning is a milestone at the start of futures studies and strategic planning process. It must be done collectively and as participatory as possible to explore, create, and test both possible and desirable futures to capture opportunities of the futures images, trying to optimize it, and at the same time to avoid or reduce the risks of future threats. Internal analysis focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of an organization, while external analysis focuses on the threats and opportunities that may suddenly happen in the future. These two types of analysis provide an inventory of all variables / factors or events / drivers, internal and external that characterizes the system. But this is not enough for long-term strategic planning, the issue is not really planning, but rather the manner in which planning isexecuted. So advanced analysis should be done to study the direct and indirect relations among these trends, issues, variables / factors. As the vector of key variables is extracted with relations (influence, dependency) in mind, The impact of each of these key variables on each other must be taken into account relative to the system under study; CIA (Cross-Impact-Analysis) method is used to study such impacts. Future studies and forecasting methods need to benefit from this analysis to focus on the effects of these unprecedented future events. This paper introduces such work by integrating the results of strategic planning tools with futures studies methods and this could be essential for advanced analysis.

More applicable environmental scanning systems leveraging “modern” information systems

With Ansoff's article about weak signals as a flagship example, a substantial body of knowledge about environmental scanning systems exists. However, these concepts often go unused in practice. The...

Business intelligence for biopharmaceutical company

Motivation and Objectives Competition is a fundamental concept of economic market, which requires companies to practice Competitive Intelligence (CI) in order to be advantageously positioned on the market. Therefore, companies are required to monitoring constantly the information’s sources, for detect any change in order to make appropriate solutions in real time. However, for a successful monitoring, we should not be satisfied merely to monitor the opportunities, but before all, to anticipate risks. The external risk factors have never been so many: extremely dynamic and unpredictable markets, new entrants, mergers and acquisitions, sharp price reduction, rapid changes in consumption patterns and values, fragility of brands and their reputation. To face all these challenges, our research consists in proposing a Competitive Intelligence System (CIS) designed to provide online services. Through in a descriptive and statistics exploratory methods of data, Xplor EveryWhere (XEW) display, in a very short time, new strategic knowledge such as: the profile of the actors, their reputation, their relationships, their sites of action, their mobility, emerging issues and concepts, terminology, promising fields etc. Methods In our research team, we coordinate the process of CI around three concepts: strategic analysis, environmental scanning and information system. The CIS XEW (el. haddadi et al., 2011a. b.) aims to improve decision-making in all aspects in business life, particularly offensive and innovative decisions. XEW based on a multidimensional analysis model, whose objective analyzed the information environment in all dimensions of a decision problem, with the exploitation of information by analyzing the evolution of their interactions. Our approach combines two methods: knowledge discovering in text (KDT) and environmental scanning. The dynamic aspect is vital to any analysis in the context of CI. These dynamics include continuous monitoring of the business environment in order to detect its changes and developments. The proposed information system, based on an exploratory multivariate analysis model: ‘the relational aspect and the time dimension’, which we call Xplor. It is based on extracting know-ledge from textual data by analyzing relational data and their evolution. This model allows time specification to situate events, strategy and actions as well as in: the past by reconstructing the chronology; the present- oriented time to detect weak signal and the future to detect relationships in network, such as partnerships, alliances, mergers, acquisitions, co-citations, co-signatures, co- occurrences of all kinds Results and Discussion With the evolution of technology, such a CIS will enables us to increase efficiency and responsiveness, because at any moment, it is possible to gain access all strategic information by markers itself can be information back very quickly “field” which may possibly trigger other strategic analysis, for example it’s possible to detect the social network, the semantic network, the company network and the others types of network’s (figure 1). The experimental system XEW shows a user satisfaction, regardless of their field: computer scientists, statisticians, analysts, decision-maker or watchmen, etc.. The majority describes the prototype in interactive, with ergonomic, collaborative and a information system for decision support. For majority users the mobility is very important. They can now enjoy the advantage of data analysis everywhere. This experiment allowed us to validate the proposed prototype and consider measures to improve Xplor EveryWhere. We analyze these measures in our research perspectives. References El. Haddadi A, Dousset B, et al. (2011 a) Xplor EveryWhere - The competitive intelligence system for mobile. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Multimedia Computing and Systems, IEEE. El. Haddadi A, Dousset B, et al. (2011 b) Discovering patterns in order to detect weak signals and define new strategies. In IGI Global. Note: Figures and tables are available in PDF version only.

ARCHIVAL STUDIES AT VILNIUS UNIVERSITY: DEVELOPMENT AND PERSPECTIVES

Todays’ approaches to the role of archives and their functions in society as well as requirements to them as social institutions and to professional archivists have changed essentially. Traditionally closed, difficult to access and self-oriented archives do not seem to be popular and promising anymore.World archives are more oriented towards the dissemination of information and satisfying the information needs of society and not only to the preservation of historical heritage.The European Union supports an integrated approach to memory and heritage information institutions, their interactions, related research and educational programmes. In addition, the archives of institutions and organizations co-exist with historical archives. They require information organization and management skills. Therefore, modern archivists need a high information competence, good knowledge of foreign languages and communication skills.The goal of the study was to analyse the development of the archival study programme, to explain the curent situation and to outline the future perspectives in the improvement of the programme. The author presents her insights developed while working with this programme from the very beginning of its development.The Faculty of Communication at the Vilnius University was the first in Lithuania to prepare and start implementing the bachelor study programme in archival work in 1999. The programme was created after winning the competition announced by the government of the Republic of Lithuania for the academic archival studies at the Lithuanian universities. The first study programme was compiled as a common programme run in cooperation with the Faculty of History at the VU.Archivists have been educated at the Faculty of Communication for fourteen years. The content of the study programme is being constantly modified, and this helps to improve the education. A permanent analysis of archival study programmes at foreign universities allows us to understand the study programme from multiple perspectives.Graduates of the archival study programme acquire skills in the organization and management of information in different cultural, scientific, business, governmental and media institutions as well as in special information services. They learn how to provide information to communites, create and implement information policy, carry out information and communication research.The goal of the programme is to provide the basic education of archivistics on the university level, knowledge of information and communication needed for professional activity in knowledge management and communicating with the professional environment and society from within archives of different types.The study options are implemented using the experience of lecturers at the Faculty of Communication and other departments, acquired in teaching the subjecs of documentary communication, history, humanitarian culture, foreign languages, etc. Contacts with state archives have been established, the cooperation with institutions in public and business sectors is going on. Agreements regarding the teaching of several courses on the basis of their activities have been reached, and professionals are providing specific teaching modules.There are advanced quality ensurance and environmental scanning systems implemented in the study programme. They should be improved using criteria accepted on the international level.

Technological convergence throughout the eras: Part 1 – Cars

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the history and development of the automobile industry Furthermore the paper discusses convergence in the context of discontinuous competitive environment and possible management responses to changes.Design/methodology/approach – The findings of this paper are based on the analysis of the auto industry and the changes triggered by advances in related industries and socio‐economic forces.Findings – The rate of change in innovation is leading to the creation of new industries and the disintegration of the industry classifications due to convergence of multiple needs previously served by different industry groupings. As such, firms have to upgrade their environmental scanning systems to detect competitive forces beyond the industrial competitive boundaries.Practical implications – The paper provides a comprehensive review of convergence and disruptive technologies and the resulting implications for the automobile industry.Originality/value – The paper highlig...

Technological convergence throughout the eras: Part 2 – Cellular and computers

Purpose – The development and proliferation of cellular/wireless technology has changed the competitive environment of traditional cooper based telephony. The complexity in the competitive environment coupled with advances in technology and innovation is requiring management to rethink strategy formulation and implementation. Convergence is discussed in the context of discontinuous competitive environment and possible management responses to changes.Design/methodology/approach – The findings of this paper are based on the analysis of the communications industry, a comprehensive review of trends in innovation and technology, strategic diagnosis and implication for management.Findings – The rate of change in innovation is leading to the creation of new industries and the disintegration of the industry classifications due to convergence of multiple needs previously served by different industry groupings. As such, firms have to upgrade their environmental scanning systems to detect competitive forces beyond t...

Technological convergence throughout the eras: Part 3 – Biotechnology

Purpose – It is widely acknowledged that the pace of change due to complexity in the competitive environment coupled with advances in technology and innovation is forcing management to rethink strategy formulation and implementation. The purpose of this paper is to discuss convergence in the context of discontinuous competitive environment and possible management responses to changes.Design/methodology/approach – The findings of this paper are based on the analysis of developments in the biotechnology environment. The disruption to pharmaceutical industry is examined from the context of need served.Findings – The rate of change in innovation is leading to the creation of new industries and the disintegration of the industry classifications due to convergence of multiple needs previously served by different industry groupings. As such, firms have to upgrade their environmental scanning systems to detect competitive forces beyond the traditional industrial competitive boundaries.Practical implications – The...

An internet‐based approach to environmental scanning in marketing planning

PurposeThis paper introduces a new approach for autonomous internet‐based environmental scanning, which combines concept of weak signals with “information foraging theory”.Design/methodology/approachEarly detection and rapid action with respect to developments in the operating environment is a prerequisite for successful marketing planning. Accordingly, this paper proposes a three‐stage process for overcoming practical obstacles to the detection and use of weak signals from the operating environment, in particular how to identify relevant and useful documents in harsh information environments such as the internet. Its functionality is demonstrated by means of a human‐machine experiment.FindingsA framework based on information foraging theory is well suited to the task of determining the relevance of documents and facilitates the automation of information search processes. A prototype environmental scanning system of this type outperformed human experts in a typical scanning task.Research limitations/implicationsEmbedding the detection of weak signals in a formal process permits intelligence gatherers to step beyond anecdotal evidence, and complements the current literature on weak signal detection with formal and systematic procedural guidelines.Practical implicationsThe presented methodology facilitates both the selection and the structuring of information sources. This unburdens the managers and leaves time for important tasks such as the development of concrete marketing plans reacting to detected developments.Originality/valueThe paper provides a comprehensive framework for web‐based weak signal detection in business environments, and can be used as a starting point for the development of practicable environmental scanning systems.

Experimental evaluation of an environmental CAT scanning system for mapping chemicals in air in real-time.

An innovative method is being developed which creates real-time, two-dimensional maps of chemical concentrations in air for environmental and occupational applications. This method, we call environmental CAT scanning, combines the real-time measuring technique of open-path Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy with the mapping capabilities of computed tomography to produce accurate spatial and temporal information about contaminant concentrations and dispersion patterns. With this system, a network of open-path measurements is obtained over an area; measurements are then processed using a tomographic algorithm to reconstruct the concentrations. This article describes a thorough experimental evaluation of an environmental CAT scanning system using a field-ready prototype system deployed in a room-size exposure chamber; point sample measurements were taken simultaneously in the chamber along with the CAT measurements. Twenty-eight experiments were performed using single or multiple plumes of a tracer gas in the chamber. Tomographic maps were compared with the point sample reference maps to evaluate the CAT scanning system for accuracy of concentration measurement and plume location. Quantitative agreement was very good; concentrations reconstructed with the tomographic maps agreed to within 17 percent of the point sample maps, and plume locations were reconstructed to within six inches of the plumes in the point sample maps. This technique shows real promise as a rapid and accurate method for mapping chemicals over large areas.

Mapping chemicals in air using an environmental CAT scanning system: evaluation of algorithms

A new technique is being developed which creates near real-time maps of chemical concentrations in air for environmental and occupational environmental applications. This technique, we call Environmental CAT Scanning, combines the real-time measuring technique of open-path Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy with the mapping capabilitites of computed tomography to produce two-dimensional concentration maps. With this system, a network of open-path measurements is obtained over an area; measurements are then processed using a tomographic algorithm to reconstruct the concentrations. This research focussed on the process of evaluating and selecting appropriate reconstruction algorithms, for use in the field, by using test concentration data from both computer simultation and laboratory chamber studies. Four algorithms were tested using three types of data: (1) experimental open-path data from studies that used a prototype opne-path Fourier transform/computed tomography system in an exposure chamber; (2) synthetic open-path data generated from maps created by kriging point samples taken in the chamber studies (in 1), and; (3) synthetic open-path data generated using a chemical dispersion model to create time seires maps. The iterative algorithms used to reconstruct the concentration data were: Algebraic Reconstruction Technique without Weights (ART1), Algebraic Reconstruction Technique with Weights (ARTW), Maximum Likelihood with Expectation Maximization (MLEM) and Multiplicative Algebraic Reconstruction Technique (MART). Maps were evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively. In general, MART and MLEM performed best, followed by ARTW and ART1. However, algorithm performance varied under different contaminant scenarios. This study showed the importance of using a variety of maps, particulary those generated using dispersion models. The time series maps provided a more rigorous test of the algorithms and allowed distinctions to be made among the algorithms. A comprehensive evaluation of algorithms, for the environmental application of tomography, requires the use of a battery of test concentration data before field implementation, which models reality and tests the limits of the algorithms.

A field study using open-path FTIR spectroscopy to measure and map air emissions from volume sources

Open-path Fourier transform infrared (OP-FTIR) spectroscopy is a relatively new measurement technique offering advantages over traditional point samples for monitoring air contaminants and validating dispersion models. In addition, this technology has the potential to produce temporally and spatially resolved chemical concentration maps. In this study, OP-FTIR spectrometer measurements and point samplers were used to evaluate two short-term refined Gaussian dispersion models for predicting the fate of volume source emissions. Additionally, these data were used for a pilot Environmental CAT scanning system using two scanning OP-FTIR spectrometers and eight retroreflectors. An environmental CAT scanning system processes a network of intersecting OP-FTIR spectrometers using a tomographic reconstruction algorithm. When the algorithm is applied to these real-time measurements, two-dimensional chemical concentration maps are created of the area. This technique is noninvasive and is capable of providing real-time spatially and temporally resolved concentration maps of multiple chemicals simultaneously and at low limits of detection (ppb–low ppm). Near real-time chemical concentration maps were generated for the entire field site, and the concentration maps were compared with model maps with respect to plume location and plume shape. We evaluated the Industrial Source Complex–Short Term (Version 3) (ISCST) model and the American Meteorological Society/Environmental Protection Agency Regulatory Model Improvement Committee (AERMOD) model. Sulfur hexafluoride was released at known rates from a simulated volume source and was measured at various points in the study field with the use of a network of Tedlar® bag point samples and OP-FTIR spectrometer measurements. Both ISCST and AERMOD underpredicted SF6 concentrations when compared to the 5-min averaged OP-FTIR spectrometer measurements (1.3x) and the 1-h integrated Tedlar® bag samples (1.4x). For most time periods, the tomographic concentration maps compared fairly well with the model predictions in terms of plume shape and location. The tomographic maps tracked the impact of changing wind direction better than the model predictions. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Field Analyt Chem Technol 3: 69–79, 1999

Environmental scanning and information systems in relation to success in introducing new products

CEOs in 46 firms were interviewed in regard to the pattern of the environmental scanning they performed. The results were analyzed to determine the degree of use of information systems by CEOs in their strategic decision making and to seek a link with the firm's success in introducing new products. The study indicates significant differences in the level of environmental scanning and in the use of information systems between firms that were more successful in introducing new products into the market and firms that were less successful. The differences are in the pattern and the frequency of conducting environmental scanning, in the number of computerized applications, and in the number of advanced marketing information systems.

Environmental scanning systems and performance: an empirical study of Russian companies

Describes a study which examined the environmental scanning systems in 226 Russian companies. Reports the findings which indicate that more advanced scanning systems were associated with higher performance levels in Russia. Comparative analysis which followed the analysis of statistical data suggested that there were a number of Western management concepts which could be used to promote the development of more sophisticated environmental scanning systems in the context of the Russian culture. Argues that this could lead to improved business performance in Russia.