Impact Of Environmental Uncertainty Research Articles

The impact of environmental uncertainty on performance during COVID-19 pandemic: the mediating role of decision making structure

The impact of environmental uncertainty on performance during COVID-19 pandemic: the mediating role of decision making structure

Prior uncertainty impedes discrete locomotor adaptation.

The impact of environmental uncertainty on locomotor adaptation remains unclear. Environmental uncertainty could either aid locomotor adaptation by prompting protective control strategies that stabilize movements to assist learning or impede adaptation by reducing error sensitivity and fostering hesitance to pursue corrective movements. To explore this, we investigated participants' adaptation to a consistent force field after experiencing environmental uncertainty in the form of unpredictable balance perturbations. We compared the performance of this group (Perturbation) to the adaptive performance of a group that did not experience any unpredictable perturbations (Non-Perturbation). Perturbations were delivered using a cable-driven robotic device applying lateral forces to the pelvis. We assessed whole-body center of mass (COM) trajectory (COM signed deviation), anticipatory postural adjustments (COM lateral offset), and first step width. The Perturbation group exhibited larger disruptions in COM trajectory (greater COM signed deviations) than the Non-Perturbation group when first walking in the force field. While the COM signed deviations of both groups decreased towards baseline values, only the Non-Perturbation group returned to baseline levels. The Perturbation groups COM signed deviations remained higher, indicating they failed to fully adapt to the force field before the end. The Perturbation group also did not adapt their COM lateral offset to counter the predictable effects of the force field as the Non-Perturbation group did, and their first step width increased more slowly. Our findings suggest that exposure to unpredictable perturbations impeded future sensorimotor adaptations to consistent perturbations.

Efforts to enhance SMEs' motivation and performance through environmental uncertainty in Aceh Province

This research focuses on the impact of environmental uncertainty on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Indonesia, particularly in Aceh Province. These businesses are vital for sustaining the country's economy. The study investigates how SMEs in this region can expand internationally despite facing environmental uncertainties. It emphasizes the importance of motivation in helping these enterprises overcome challenges and uncertainties, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and global conflicts like the Russia-Ukraine war. The study employed a survey method, gathering primary data through questionnaires distributed to a target population of SMEs in Aceh Province, involving 1,245 businesses. A purposive random sampling technique was used to select 275 respondents. These respondents were chosen because their businesses have shown growth and resilience amidst various uncertainties. The findings reveal that both environmental uncertainty and motivation significantly influence the performance of SMEs in Aceh Province. Moreover, motivation plays a crucial role in mediating the effects of environmental uncertainty on SME performance. This suggests that in the face of uncertainties in the business environment, strong motivation drives SMEs to innovate and sustain their operations.

Empirical Study on the Impact of Environmental Uncertainty on Dynamic Adjustment of Financial Flexibility

From the perspective of environmental uncertainty, this paper further studies whether the dynamic adjustment of the financial flexibility of enterprises will be affected by environmental uncertainty and its changes. Through the research, it is found that there is a reasonable level of target flexibility, and the actual financial flexibility of enterprises will constantly converge to the target. Environmental uncertainty will accelerate the dynamic adjustment of financial flexibility. The change in environmental uncertainty will also accelerate the dynamic adjustment speed of financial flexibility. It can help enterprises correctly understand financial flexibility, and then guide enterprises to make reasonable and effective financial decisions so that the financial decisions of enterprises are more scientific.

The Impact of Environmental Uncertainty on Accounting Information Relevance and Performance: A Contingency Approach

This paper examines the association between environmental uncertainty, accounting information relevance, and organizational performance. From a contingency approach, this paper attempts to contribute to a stream of research that investigates the relationship between accounting information relevance and organizational performance. The presence of environmental uncertainty in this relationship has not been fully established. This paper contributes to this area by suggesting a framework to study and explain this connection. An online questionnaire-based survey was conducted, which produced 119 valid responses (a response rate of 23%) from large manufacturing companies operating in Portugal. The results suggest that in contexts of environmental uncertainty, the relevance of non-financial information increases. However, the relevance of financial information continues to outstrip that of non-financial information. The results also suggest that financial information and non-financial information are complementary, and not substitutes, and can be used simultaneously in different situations. These results have several implications for professionals involved in decision-making activities. It offers findings which are potentially useful for both theory and practice. The study addresses an identified gap in the literature and adds to the existing body of work analyzing the association between environmental uncertainty, accounting information relevance for decision-making purposes, and organizational performance.

The Impact of Environmental Uncertainty on Corporate Innovation: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

Corporate innovation is an important topic in the academic community, but there are few studies on the impact of the micro operation environment on corporate innovation. Using the data of A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2009 to 2020, this paper examines the impact of environmental uncertainty on enterprise innovation from a micro perspective. The results show that there is an overall negative correlation between environmental uncertainty and corporate innovation. Companies facing a higher degree of environmental uncertainty are more cautious in their innovation investment. We also find that this negative correlation was more pronounced in companies with weaker risk-taking ability. Further research finds that financing constraints have a partial intermediary effect on the impact of environmental uncertainty on innovation, that is, environmental uncertainty can have a negative impact on innovation by increasing the financing constraints faced by corporations. Our research provides micro-level evidence for the impact of uncertainty on corporate innovation.

The Impact of Environmental Uncertainty on Corporate Innovation: Empirical Evidence from an Emerging Economy.

The paper analyzes the effect of environmental uncertainty on corporate technological innovation from the perspective of an innovation value chain under the institutional background of China. This paper not only discusses the intermediary effect of agency problems on environmental uncertainty and corporate technological innovation but also deeply explores the influence of information transparency, government subsidies, and other mechanisms to alleviate agency problems on environmental uncertainty and corporate technological innovation. We use the data of listed companies in China from 2008 to 2019 as the research sample, and the results show that, in general, environmental uncertainty has a negative effect on both input and output of technological innovation, and the negative effect can last for two years. Further research shows that the agency problem has an intermediary effect on the environmental uncertainty and corporate technology innovation, and the environmental uncertainty aggravates the agency problem, which hinders the input and output of corporate technology innovation. As an important mechanism to alleviate the agency problems, information transparency and government subsidies can effectively alleviate the agency conflict, thus reducing the inhibition of environmental uncertainty on the input and output of technological innovation. Our findings contribute to the discussion of driving factors for technological innovation in the context of China’s system. Our results provide useful insights into the link between environmental uncertainty and corporate innovation for economic academics and practitioners alike.

Capabilities and options in uncertain environments: A study of global offshoring

While the impact of environmental uncertainty on the relationship between firm capabilities and firm performance is still unclear, we adopt the integrated perspective of dynamic capabilities and real options to explore this issue under the context of global offshoring. We propose that an offshoring firm could benefit from its offshoring capabilities to configure globally dispersed activities as options in uncertain environments. In addition, the managerial attention and discretion guided by a corporate strategy to implement offshoring, an execution of options, could help explain the variance of firm performance. As firms own equivalently offshoring capabilities and face the same level of environmental uncertainty, we further argue that the implementation of a corporate-wide offshoring strategy would result in better performance by capturing the value of options. Using the firm data from the Corporate Client Survey of Offshoring Research Network and the uncertainty measurement from the International Country Risk Guide, we find the empirical support for our premises.

Companies performance management: the role of operational flexibility

The article summarizes the arguments on minimizing the uncertainty level caused by numerous unforeseen circumstances due to using operational flexibility to increase companies' efficiency (example of small and medium enterprises in the pharmaceutical sector of Iran). The research aims at investigating the relationship between operational flexibility and a company's performance to examine the impact of environmental uncertainty on these relationships. This study was conducted as quantitative. The deductive method using the synergy of systematization of scientific background on the problem and the empirical proof of the formulated hypotheses became a methodological study tool. The article provides evidence of the economic-mathematical model based on data from small and medium-sized pharmaceutical Iranian companies. The study hypotheses are as follows: 1) operational flexibility has a positive effect on the productivity of the pharmaceutical sector of Iran, represented by small and medium-sized companies; 2) uncertainty determines the relationship between the operational flexibility and efficiency of small and medium-sized pharmaceutical companies in Iran. The model constructed by the authors allowed measuring the relationship between variables using regression analysis and moderation analysis (Hayes model). The total number of companies included in the sample is 113. In turn, 228 managers of these pharmaceutical companies took part in the surveys (Iran example). The empirical analysis results showed that the mix flexibility indicator has practically no effect on companies' efficiency, and the volume flexibility and product development flexibility indicators generally have a positive effect on the performance of companies in the pharmaceutical sector. On the other hand, the environmental uncertainty indicator does not help reduce the relationship between the operational flexibility indicator and companies' performance in the pharmaceutical sector of Iran's economy. The study results could be useful for planning small and medium enterprises' activities in the context of improving their performance.

Impact of Environmental Uncertainty, Trust and Information Technology on User Behavior of Accounting Information Systems

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Denpasar City still face low mastery of technology and financial management, one of which is the application of technology-based accounting information systems (e-commerce) for small and medium enterprises. The research objective was to determine the relationship between environmental uncertainty, trust and ease of information technology moderating behavior in accounting information systems. Research with a quantitative approach, the method used is multiple linear regression with moderated regression analysis. The study population was 816 small and medium enterprises. The sampling method technique was the incidental sampling approach and the Slovin formula so that a sampling of 100 small and medium enterprises that had used e-commerce was determined in the city of Denpasar. The results of research that have been conducted determine the relationship between user behavior in accounting information systems that affect individual performance, the relationship between environmental uncertainty affects accounting information systems mediated by individual performance, while the ease of information technology and its ability to be mediated by individual performance has an effect on the behavior of using accounting information systems. The application of accounting information systems in small and medium enterprises is expected to improve individual performance so as to increase income.

Environmental Uncertainty and Firm Performance: The Moderating Role of Corporate Governance

This research aimed to examine the effect of environmental uncertainty on firm performance. This research added corporate governance as a moderating variable. The research samples were manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange for the period 2014-2018 which were selected using purposive sampling techniques. The samples analyzed were 442 company data. The result showed that environmental uncertainty has a negative effect on firm performance. The result indicated environmental uncertainty causes operating expenses to increase so that the firm performance decreases. In addition, the results showed that corporate governance reduced the effect of environmental uncertainty on firm performance. The result indicated corporate governance is able to reduce the impact of environmental uncertainty so that firm performance increases.

Real options in franchise contracting: an application of transaction cost and real options theory

Previous research has not explained the use of real option clause in franchise contracting. The real option clause has two economic functions: To reduce transaction costs by mitigating opportunism risk and to increase strategic rents by exploiting the profit potential from future upside opportunities under uncertainty. We argue that franchisors will more likely use a real option clause (ROC) in franchise contracts under high behavioral uncertainty, high franchisors’ transaction-specific investments relative to franchisees’ and long contract duration. In addition, by combining transaction cost theory and real option theory, our study provides a new explanation for the impact of environmental uncertainty on the use of ROC in franchise networks by showing that there exists a U-shaped relationship between environmental uncertainty and the franchisor’s use of ROC. Overall, the data from German and Swiss franchise systems provide support of the research model.

The Impact of Environmental Uncertainty and Leverage on Firm Restatements

This study examines the relationships of environmental uncertainty and leverage with financial restatements, using a sample of 5,454 organizations that were audited by 582 unique auditors, including 3,406 restatements. As hypothesized, we find a higher likelihood of subsequent restatement of an organization’s financial statements, both overall and for Big R restatements, for organizations with increased environmental uncertainty and higher relative levels of leverage. The interaction of environmental uncertainty and leverage was also linked to increased likelihood of restatement. Implications for theory and practice are addressed.

The bright side and dark side of trust: The mediating effect of franchisor trust on performance.

Previous literature has not examined the dual role of trust in franchise relationships. We extend the franchise and relational governance literature by showing that trust has both a “bright side” and a “dark side” in franchisor–franchisee relationships. Based on transaction cost and knowledge‐based reasoning, we argue that intangible knowledge assets and environmental uncertainty have an indirect effect on performance via trust, due to its relational risk and knowledge exchange effect. Using data from the franchise sector in Germany, we show that trust positively mediates the impact of intangible knowledge assets and negatively mediates the impact of environmental uncertainty on franchisor performance. The first effect refers to the “bright side” of trust showing that intangible brand name assets increase trust which, in turn, has a positive effect on performance. Conversely, the second effect refers to the “dark side” of trust highlighting that environmental uncertainty diminishes trust resulting in a negative effect on performance.

Impact of Environmental Uncertainty and Contractual Embeddedness on Supplier's Sales Probability

Existing literature offers limited knowledge about online markets that consist of open contractual and supply networks. Online markets allow consumers to develop their supply chains by choosing suppliers from the open contractual network. Suppliers’ contractual embeddedness (SCE), which is how they are contracted with each other, may influence their sales probability in online markets. However, SCE is conceptually vague because literature posits both linear and nonlinear effects of embeddedness on performance mostly based on subjective measures. Also, suppliers change their contracts in online markets to adapt to environmental uncertainty over time, but this remains poorly understood in the literature. Hence, this study explores how the environmental uncertainty dimensions of dynamism, munificence and complexity and objective measures of SCE such as degree and closeness centralities impact the supplier’s sales probability by mainly invoking Complex Adaptive System theory and Social Network theories. Applying panel logit regression model to Australian-based Open Food Network data from 2012 to 2016, this study empirically validates that SCE generally improves the supplier’s sales probability and environmental uncertainty dimensions moderate that relationship. Network diagrams illustrate the local optimisation behaviour of network clusters and how they evolve into different network patterns over time.

The impact of environmental uncertainty on the performance of the rice supply chain in the Ayeyarwaddy Region, Myanmar

In this paper, we study the relationship between environmental uncertainty and performance in the rice supply chain in the Ayeyarwaddy Region, Myanmar. Efficiency is one of the important performance indicators in both supply chain and agribusiness. In this regard, the objectives of the study are to identify the different sources of uncertainty perceived by the different actors in the supply chain, to measure the rice supply chain efficiency, and to study the impact of the environmental uncertainty on the supply chain efficiency. The data of 215 respondents is collected from the Ayeyarwaddy Region by using a purposive and stratified random sampling method, and we analyze this data via descriptive statistics, an exploratory factor analysis, data envelopment analysis (DEA), and Tobit regression analysis. The scores for the technical, pure, and scale efficiency show a very low performance of the rice supply chain in the Ayeyarwaddy Region resulting from the fact that most of the rice businesses are too small and need to expand their operating size. We found that this global rice supply chain performance is significantly impacted by the planning and control uncertainty and the climate uncertainty. Therefore, mitigation initiatives must be developed such as financial insurance mechanisms and extension services should be widespread. Both aim to improve the impact of the climate adverse conditions and to increase the efficiency of resource utilization in the supply chain. Moreover, the actors should organize themselves in cooperatives such that the scale of operations can be increased and information is captured and shared between different parties in the supply chain. This is crucial to operational control and planning because a higher quality of information input will increase the quality of managerial decision making.

Environmental uncertainty and corporate social responsibility

This study examines the impact of environmental uncertainty on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Using a 23-year panel sample with 3,053 unique US firms and 23,742 firm-year observations, we test the ethics view and risk management view of corporate social responsibility. We find a significant and negative relationship between environmental uncertainty and corporate social responsibility, suggesting that firms are less likely to engage in corporate social responsibility activities when faced with an uncertain environment. Our results support the ethics view of corporate social responsibility. These insights should interest policymakers who implement guidelines on CSR and firms that are considering adjusting their CSR levels. Our results should also provide practitioners with useful insights regarding which specific determinants are associated with a company's level of CSR activities, and interest firms that attempt to incorporate CSR in their business systems.

Service strategy to improve operational capabilities in the public sector

ABSTRACTPublic institutions, such as emergency services, face unique operational challenges because they do not have a clear profit motive, operate in a political system as opposed to a market system, and have a fragmented authority structure. This study applies traditional operations and service strategy theory to the not-for-profit, public sector context. Synthesizing research from these theoretical domains, a contingency framework is developed to determine the effect of environmental uncertainty and strategic choices on operational capabilities in emergency services under different governance structures. Operations strategy research traditionally uses survey-based measures, while emergency services research focuses on mathematical modeling techniques. In contrast, this study analyzes archival data with 9800 emergency incidents using hierarchical regression. The results support that in the public not-for-profit context, strategic choices mediate the impact of environmental uncertainty on operational capability. Furthermore, governance structure moderates the impact of environmental uncertainty and strategic choices.

Uncertainty, Incentive and Over/Under-Investment

This paper focuses on the impact of environmental uncertainty on investment efficiency, taking into account the effect of executive equity incentives on inefficient investments in opportunity investment set. Using the empirical data of listed companies, the study found that environmental uncertainty will increase investment efficiency and reduce over-investment level. Executive equity incentive will reduce the over-investment level and promote the lack of investment.

The impact of environmental uncertainty on international joint venture performance: the mediating role of international joint venture adaptation

This paper investigates the role of international joint venture (IJV) adaptation in the relationship between environmental uncertainty and IJV performance. Four hypotheses are developed concerning this relationship, predicting a direct positive relationship between uncertainty and adaptation (H1); a direct negative relationship between uncertainty and performance (H2); a direct positive relationship between adaptation and performance (H3); and a mediating effect of IJV adaptation on the relationship between uncertainty and IJV performance (H4). To test these hypotheses, path analysis, a special case of the structural equation modelling (SEM) technique, is used on questionnaire survey data from 102 manufacturing IJVs operating in Turkey. The results of this analysis were consistent with the first three hypotheses. The mediating effect of IJV adaptation (H4) was also confirmed by a Sobel test and the bootstrapping approach, suggesting that IJV adaptation mitigates the negative impact of environmental uncertainty on IJV performance.