Research Focus Objectives and Contribution

The focus of the study was on a key element of strategic management - the acquisition and use of information about the external business environment. Chapter 1 introduced the topic of strategic intelligence while Chapter 2 demnstrated that it has been a popular subject for scholarly study in recent decades. There is now a fairly rich body of environmental scanning literature, but nearly all the reported studies have been conducted in Western settings. The major studies reported before the late 1980s used data drawn from organisations that were almost exclusively based in the United States. More recently, studies conducted in Canada, Korea, Nigeria, and the United Kingdom have been published.

The general purpose of this study was to extend the existing body of environmental scanning literature by observing, describing and (to the extent possible) developing explanations for the strategic intelligence patterns in a distinctive context. As Carroll and Johnson (1990, p.ll) contend, it is important to research not only "how decisions are made in terms of the information used, (and) the way information is combined, . . . but also the situational effects on decision making".

Some 25 centuries after Sun Zi first documented its importance to military strategy, the context for the strategic intelligence phenomenon returned to Chinese organisations. However, this time the data were collected in Hong Kong, on the eve of its political transfer from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China. The aim of the study was to find out how Hong Kong Chinese chief executives perceived the pre-handover environment and how they sourced information in order to recognise, understand and address strategic issues.

Carroll and Johnson (1990, p. 14) suggest that research may be conducted to examine a particular decision, a particular type of decision, a particular decision maker, or aspects of the decision process in general. Based upon this typology, the study looked at a particular group of decision makers (ethnic Chinese chief executives in Hong Kong) and a particular type of decision, the sourcing of information about the external environment in the context of strategy making or strategic issue diagnosis.

The primary research objective was to systematically observe, describe, and illustrate the acquisition and use of information about the external environment by Chinese chief executives in pre-handover Hong Kong in order to develop explanatory theory. Chinese businesses have been renowned for their ability to succeed amidst environmental uncertainty (Ko, 1995; Redding, 1990) . This reputation prompted an interest in how ethnic Chinese CEOs in different economic sectors - goods-producing as well as service-providing and private as well as public - perceived the pre-handover Hong Kong business environment, and how they scanned their environments in response to perceptions of uncertainty as well as strategic needs.

The secondary research objective was to compare and contrast the results from Hong Kong with previously reported studies of environmental scanning in other contexts. This work is believed to be the first to consider strategic intelligence activities in the heart of Asia and by ethnic Chinese managers. Consequently,

an appropriate research design would enable 1) meaningful comparisons with many previously-reported environmental scanning studies, and 2) the development of explanations for any differences that were observed.

These comparisons and explanations were expected to build upon and advance cross-cultural knowledge in the fields of strategic management and information management. The research thus implicitly sought to examine the applicability of Western (and primarily Anglo-American) management theories and practices in a predominantly Chinese cultural environment. Given the perspective presented in Chapter 3, there were reasons to believe that this study of Chinese chief excutives in pre-handover Hong Kong would uncover both behaviours and rationales for behaviours that were different from those of managers in countries with an Anglo cultural heritage.

The research goals were descriptive and explanatory rather than prescriptive. The primary aim was not to prescribe how managers in Hong Kong or elsewhere should engage in strategic intelligence activities. The study was expected to contribute significantly to our knowledge and understanding of how information about the business environment is collected and used by top managers, especially when facing an impending environmental discontinuity. The conclusions and implications drawn from the results are likely to interest at least three groups: organisational designers, management practitioners, and IS specialists.

With respect to the first of these groups, Daft et al. (1988, p. 137) suggest that "gradually unravelling the sequence of activities associated with interpretation of the environment and strategic responses may provide a stronger normative basis for saying how firms can be designed to increase company performance in light of strategic or environmental contingencies". This is in line with the information processing perspective considered in Chapter 2.

Meanwhile, growing numbers of organisational leaders all over the world may be expected to face the same fast pace, turbulence and information richness that characterised pre-handover Hong Kong. Many of these strategic management practitioners are likely to be interested in the environmental perceptions and information sourcing behaviours found in this study. Their interest would stem largely from a desire to benchmark their own activities. However, a few managers, even non-Hong Kong ones, may want to go further. They may not copy the observed patterns, but may use them to better understand the behaviours (and underlying rationales for the behaviours) of potential adversaries or collaborators. As Chinese businesses extend their impact internationally, such a knowledge base will become progressively more valuable to non-Chinese management practitioners.

The focus on information also leads to the issue discussed at the end of Chapter 1 - how can information technology be applied to support strategic management activities. The findings and inferences about the degree and nature of current and potential computerisation of strategic intelligence activities will be relevant to the vendors, sponsors, designers and users of IT products, such as EIS and related decision support tools, as well as those providing information-based services . By understanding the hows and whys of environmental scanning by Hong Kong Chinese CEOs, they should be able to offer products and services that are better suited to their intended customers and end-users.