Phua, F (2006) Examining the effects of senior executives' perceived environmental uncertainty on the strategic functions of construction firms. In: Boyd, D (ed.) Proceedings of 22nd Annual ARCOM Conference, 4-6 September 2006, Birmingham, UK.
Abstract
Insofar as the dynamic interaction between construction firms and their external environment is concerned, little empirical work has been done to examine how the external environment as it is perceived by senior executives affect the way firms operate. Results from 526 firms across various construction-related sectors show a link exists between senior executives' perceived environmental uncertainty and the kinds of activities or strategic functions that firms use. Results also show that while the day-to-day firm support activities are not generally affected by differences in perceived managerial environmental uncertainty, firms do not seem to consistently put more emphasis on strategic functions like long-range planning process, and R&D activities even when the perceived environmental uncertainty is high. The contradictory results indicate that broader industry characteristics might be at play in influencing this lack of innovativeness by firms to pursue high-end strategic functions that could potentially improve the competitiveness of the industry.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | firm activities; perceived environmental uncertainty; senior executives; strategic functions |
| Index terms: | construction firm, environmental uncertainty, planning process, competitiveness, senior executive, interaction |
| Subjects: | organization, leadership, behavioral psychology, project controls, financial risk, market analysis |
| Topics: | Time Control, Cost Management, Business Strategy, Research Practice, Human Resources |
| Descriptive scope: | 2 PC |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here