Research Report Workshop 9 May 2009 Assoc. Prof. Dr.

Nik Maheran

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
Environmental scanning is the internal communication of external information about issues that may potentially influence an organizations decision making process..Thus, this research investigates the impact of the extent of environmental scanning to decision making quality particularly investment decision for firms in Malaysia.

1.1

Background of the study

For more than forty years, there has been periodic reviews of the decision making literature. 1.1.1 Environmental scanning

Environmental scanning is.. 1.1.2 1.1.3 Decision making quality Information Processing Capacity

However, in spite of many researches done on strategic decision making in relation to environmental scanning, no management research has focused on the impact of environmental scanning as an input to the strategic decisionmaking process to investment decision quality. Issues of the extent of scanning, scope of scanning, methods (formal vs. informal), etc. and their impact on the quality of decisions made are amongst issues yet to be fully addressed in the literature on environmental scanning

1.2

Problem Statement

Today's corporate world is undergoing unprecedented changes. The accelerating pace of technology, integrating markets, and highly competitive market, place an increasing demand to get strategic investment decision right. Malaysia like the rest of the world is doubling its efforts in transforming the economy towards

Research Report Workshop 9 May 2009 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nik Maheran
achieving higher value- added growth. Therefore, more efficient decision mechanisms are required to support this transformation. The wrong decisions made by the top management of Renong that is to cancel of UEM put option and taking a huge short-term loan of RM3.1 billion (approx. US $816 million), bailout deal.. Previous research on environmental scanning and impact on investment decisionmaking only looked at how investment decisions are made, (Eknem, 2005) and not on how scanning should be done that will impact their investment decision-making. This research therefore aims to fill such gap in the research of environmental scanning and strategic decision making by looking at the impact of environmental scanning behavior to investment decision-making quality This research will analyze the investment decisions made by top managements in all types of firms in Malaysia. 1.3 to acquire 32.6 percent stake in its holding company, (Renong Bhd), as an effort to rescue Renong, was viewed by the analyst as a

Purpose and Objective

The study on environmental scanning is well-recognized in strategic management and decision making literature. However whether its impact to investment decision making quality is not well researched especially in the developing country like Malaysia. It also attempts to address the issues of how scanning should be done in an organization to ensure quality decisions. Thus this study will attempt to achieve the following: 1. To determine the extent of environmental scanning done by decision makers. 2. To determine the impact of environmental scanning on their investment decision-making performance and quality. 3. To determine the contingent effect of information processing capacity on the relationship between environmental scanning and investment decisionmaking quality. Malaysian

Research Report Workshop 9 May 2009 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nik Maheran
1.4

Research Questions

Based on the above problem identification and the objectives, this study seeks answers to the following research questions: 1. Do Malaysian firms practice environmental scanning? 2. How do Malaysian firms scan the environment? 3. What is the impact of environmental scanning behavior on their investment decision-making quality? 4. Does information processing capacity (e.g. skills, personnel, decisionmaking software, IT support) enhance the impact of investment decision quality?

Definition of Terms
Table 2: Definition of Terms Terms Definition Environment As the relevant physical and social factors outside the boundary of an organization that are taken into consideration during the organizational decision making (Duncan, 1972) Scanning Is the means through which top managers perceive external events and trends. (Hambrick, 1982, Culnan, 1983) Is the acquisition and use of information about events, trends, and relationships in an organizations external environment, the knowledge of which would assist management in planning the organizations future course and action. (Aguilar, 1967, Choo and Auster, 1993). How decision makers understand, predict, stimulate, interpret, store, retrieve, transmit, generate judgments, and solve problems based on the information gathered.An organization processes information to make sense of its environment, to create new knowledge, and to make decisions. Larkey and Sproull (1984).

Environmental scanning

Information processing capacity

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Significance of the study

1.6.1 Theoretical Significance

The literature has generally agreed that environmental scanning has significant positive impact on the performance of an organization, as attested to by several studies such as Daft and Weick, (1984); Hambrick, (1981); Venkatraman (1989); and Dess, (1987). Furthermore environmental scanning has been established as the first step in the The outcome of this research therefore, may add to the literature on strategic management particularly strategic decision making which focuses specifically on the impact of environmental scanning on companys investment decisionmaking quality.

1.6.2

Practical Significance

One of the greatest challenges for managers of all organization today is managing uncertainty. The future is not known with certainty; as a result managers must do what they can to reduce uncertainty. It means reading the signals, following the trends and scanning the external environment. Thus the findings from this research will provide important guidelines as to the extent of scanning and the areas of scanning that need to be focused when making important investment decisions.

1.7

Conclusion

The primary focus of the study is to determine the impact of environmental scanning behavior that is the extent of environmental scanning to the investment decision making quality, looking at the information processing perspective. Since the current study is prescriptive or normative in nature, the final implication of the study is to identify how scanning should be done in order to achieve investment decision quality.

Research Report Workshop 9 May 2009 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nik Maheran

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1

Introduction
However it is a

Decisions are made almost every day by every human being.

complex process and must be well understood. In making a good decision, one that is of quality, the decision makers must know a great deal about the industry and social environment in which they work (Simon, 1987). ..

2.2

Decision Making

Many literature as cited by Haris (1998) viewed decision making as the process of choosing among alternative courses of action for the purpose of solving problem or attaining better situation regarding the opportunity that exist (e.g. Charlisle, 1979; Stoner, 1982; Harrison, 1999). .. Decision-making theory In order to understand the investment decision making better, it is necessary to understand the different theoretical perspectives to decision making. Rational decision-making In rational decision making, goals and alternatives are made explicit, the consequences of pursuing different alternatives are calculated, and these consequences are evaluated in terms of how close they are to the goals (Simon, 1987)..

2.5
2.5.1

Environmental Scanning
Definition

Environmental scanning is a managerial activity of learning about events and trends in ..

Research Report Workshop 9 May 2009 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nik Maheran
2.5.2 Environmental scanning process

Environmental scanning begins with gathering information about the external environment. .

2.5.3

Environmental scanning behavior

Efforts by executives or decision makers to assess uncertainty and identify opportunities in their environment are called scanning behavior Amount of scanning Scanning frequency (i.e. amount of scanning done by managers) is one the popular dimension of scanning behavior used in earlier studies (Elenkov, 1997; May et al., 2000; Sawyer, 1993). .. 2.5.4 2.5.5 Information Processing Capacity Decision Making Quality

2.6

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Many studies advocated that environmental scanning has positive impact on organizational performance (e.g. daft and weick (2000); Ebrahimi (2000); etc). Based on that relationship, it is proposed that the impact of environmental scanning will lead to quality investment decisions. The extent of environmental scanning in this study will be operationalized by looking at the frequency of scanning, method of scanning, kind of information sought, and sources of information used. However, a great extent of environmental scanning does not necessarily translate into better decision. The impact of quantity and quality of scanning activities will vary according to contextual situations. One of the major context variables is the information processing capacity of the organization. IPC is being measured via cognitive abilities of organizational members (past experience with scanning in interpreting the environment); and the ability of decision support system. Thus, the conceptual framework is depicted as in figure 11 below

Research Report Workshop 9 May 2009 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nik Maheran

INFORMATION PROCESSING CAPACITY

Organizational design Inform ation support system

ENVIRONMENTAL SCANING
Amount of scanning

INVESTMENT DECISION QUALITY

Figure 9: Theoretical framework of the extent of environmental scanning and investment decision making quality

2.7 HYPOTHESES
2.7.1 Scanning frequency The literature indicated that scanning frequency is the number of times the manager scans the environment to get an information. There are a number of evidence that indicate organization which engages more in environmental scanning perform more successfully than their counterparts who do not (e.g. Daft et al., 1988; ). Therefore, the researcher expected that the more frequent the manager scans the environment for information, the more timely information he/she will get to capture the changing trend. These timely information will be useful for the organization to identify problems and opportunities and therefore more able to make the correct and quality decisions. Therefore it is hypothesize that: H1: The greater the amount of environmental scanning done the better the quality of the investment decisions made.

Research Report Workshop 9 May 2009 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nik Maheran

2.7.5 Information processing Capacity This study hypothesizes that IPC is a moderator to the impact of scanning activities on the quality of the decision. DSS can increase efficiency and improve service quality of the organization and thereby increase profits. Therefore, Based researcher the believes that decision support system will help organizations to process information more quickly to arrive at better quality decision. on this premise, the researcher suggests the following hypothesis; H2: The interaction of the extent of environmental scanning behavior and decision/scanning skill and the experience of the decision maker will enhance the quality of investment decision making.

2.8

Conclusion

The primary focus of this study is trying to address the issues of how scanning should be done in an organization and what scanning behavior organizations should adopt to ensure quality decisions

Research Report Workshop 9 May 2009 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nik Maheran

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1

Introduction

This study examines the relationship between environmental scanning and the quality of investment decisions made by managers, and the role of information processing capacity in the said relationship. This chapter describes the methodology used to address the questions, in terms of the research design, the instruments, etc.

3.2

Research design

The purpose of this study is to explain the nature of relationships between the extent of environmental scanning and the investment decision making quality. Since the focus of this study is on extent of scanning and its impact, and that the researcher is trying to address the questions of what scanning behavior organizations should adopt to ensure quality decisions, it is therefore can be established by engaging hypothesis testing method of research design. Since the current research involves several variables, and the main focus is to know how one variable is related to another - that is the researcher would like to see the nature, direction and significance of the relationships between the variables used in the study, this study is correlational in nature. It does not attempt to establish cause-effect relationships. Furthermore, the extent of the researchers interference with the study is minimal as it is conducted in natural environment of the organization through interviews and self-administered questionnaires at the workplace. Since the study is correlational and not causal in nature, cross-sectional data will be sufficient. This choice is also made in recognition of the time undertake this study. The data relates to an investment decision, which therefore forms our unit of analysis. The extent of scanning involved in making the decision, and its subsequent

Research Report Workshop 9 May 2009 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nik Maheran
quality will be measured. This unit of analysis is also chosen to enhance greater internal validity. Choosing the manager or the organization making the decisions will only confuse the issues to be addressed, as managers and organizations make many decisions, some would involve a great amount of scanning, and some none at all, and the associated quality is high for some and low in others. 3.3 Variables and Measurement The conceptual framework of the study consist of the extent of environmental scanning as independent variables, investment decision quality as the dependent variable, and information processing capacity as moderating variables.

3.4

Questionnaire Design

Based upon a review of the literature, several items have been designed by the researcher specifically for this study (e.g. information on information processing capacity, investment decision making quality). However, majority of the items on information of extent of environmental scanning will be adopted from past literature (Choo, 1993; Hambrick, 1979; Walters, 1996) and the nature of decision was adopted from Mahmood (2001). The questionnaire items were arranged in five primary sections: (1) information related to general background of the decision makers, the companies, and the specific decision made within the last two years; (2) information related to extent of environmental scanning; (3) information related to information processing capacities; (4) information related to nature of decision; (5) information related to quality of investment decision making. Items in this study will use nominal measures for Section A and interval measure, rated on a 5-points Likertlike scale for Section B, C, D and partly ordinal and interval scale for Section E (which is according to Sekaran, (2000) will provide satisfactory results and reduce bias). 3.5 Population and Sample

The main interest of the study is to identify the impact of environmental scanning to investment decision making quality. Therefore, the population of the study is the investment decision per se. The data will be obtained from sources such as Registrar of Companies (ROC). The sample size for the study is determined by a rule of thumb proposed by Sekaran (2000). As according to Sekaran (2000), sample

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of one hundred to five hundred is enough to generalize the population. Therefore, one hundred samples will be chosen to participate in this research. Multistage cluster sampling will be used in this study for data collection method. Since the primary focus of the study is investment decision making.

3.8 Data Analysis Method

The data collected were analyzed using the SPSS for Windows. This analysis is to obtain (1) Goodness of measures which consists of the response rate; sample profile in terms of demographic information and other profiles; the non-response bias; and validity and reliability test; and (2) Inferential analysis, including the descriptive analysis; test of differences and the results of the hypothesis testing.

3.8.1

Goodness of Data

To verify the goodness of data, the present study observed the response rate; sample profile in terms of demographic information and other profiles; the non-response bias; and validity and reliability test. For reliability and validity

test, the present study used (1) Cronbachs alpha and (2) Construct validity. . Factor analysis was conducted to assess the validity of the theorized dimensions tapped by the items in the measure. The present study used

exploratory factor analysis to verify whether the 16 items of the independent variable, 7 items of the control variable and the 4 items of the moderating variable in the survey instrument correctly capture the environmental scanning behavior, information processing capacity and nature of decision, respectively. The researcher identifies and interprets factors based on the criteria whereby, each item should load 0.50 or greater on one factor and 0.50 or lower on the other factors. The criteria were applied by deleting items that showed loading of less than

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0.50 on all factors and items whose loading were greater than 0.50 on two or more factors. Once the data is ready for analysis (i.e., out-of-range/missing response, etc., are cleaned up, and the goodness of the measures is established), the researcher is ready to test the significance and hypotheses already developed for the study.

Inferential Analysis

Descriptive analysis The major objective of the survey is to have an overview of how investment decision is impacted by the amount of scanning done, the method of scanning used and the source of information utilized by the decision maker (i.e., the conceptualization of the extent of environmental scanning). Based on the data collected from the

questionnaire survey, descriptive statistics will be computed.

Test of Differences Test of differences was also used in the present study to explore if the scanning behavior - amount of scanning, method and sources used differ across profiles of the respondents and decisions. The intention is to test those differences and to understand further the scanning behavior of Malaysian decision makers as well as to provide the reader an opportunity to become familiar with the characteristics of the variables and demographic profiles. Statistical techniques used to evaluate these differences are t-test and One-way ANOVA.

Correlation Analysis Correlation analysis was also conducted to provide an initial picture of the interrelationships among the fourteen variables of interest. This correlation

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results will be an early indicator whether the independent and dependent variable will show significant relationship in the multiple regression. Therefore, bivariate

correlations were used to assess and understand to the extent each variable is related to each dimension of the independent variables and also to see the direction and significance of the bivariate relationships of the variables used in the study.

Hypotheses Testing Since the current research involved several variables, and the main focus is to know how one variable is related to another, that is, the researcher would like to see the nature, direction and significance of the relationships of the variables used in the study, regression analysis will provide this information that is, it will indicate the direction, strength and significance of the relationships of all the interval or ratio variables in this study. To test the hypotheses under study we used Paired-T-Test and multiple linear regressions. Paired T-Test was used when there are two

related samples of observations to see if the means on two related variables differ from one another. Multiple regressions were employed to assess simultaneous relationships and also for assessing the individual effects of the several independent variables.

Therefore: o Hypotheses 1, 2, and 3 were tested using regression analysis to enable the researchers to determine whether a significant positive relationship exists between the two variables.

Multiple regression was also employed to assess simultaneous relationships and also for testing the individual effects of the several independent variables. The beta coefficient will be examined as it tells how strongly the independent variable associated with the dependent variable is. It is equal to the correlation coefficient

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between the two variables. The Durbin Watson statistics was also examined to determine whether the assumption of independent errors is tenable. The

closer to two that the value is, the better will be the assumption. R is the correlation between the observed and predicted values of the dependent variable. The sign of R (positive or negative) indicates the direction of the relationship. The absolute value of R indicates the strength, with larger absolute values indicating stronger relationships. R squared is the proportion of variation in the dependent variable explained by the regression model. The values of R squared range from 0 to 1, small values indicate that the model does not fit the data well. The sample R squared tends to optimistically estimate how well the model fits the population. Besides R squared, we also look at the ANOVA table to check how well the model fits the data. If the significance value of the F statistics is small (smaller than say 0.05) the independent variables do a good job in explaining the variation in the dependent variables. If the significance value of F is larger than say 0.05 then the independent variables do not explain the variation in the dependent variables and the null hypothesis that all the population values for the regression coefficients are 0 is accepted.

3.9 Conclusion
To conclude, this study chooses to investigate the impact of environmental scanning on investment decision making from an Information Processing perspective. It is expected that the findings of this study will show that the amount of scanning done coupled with the correct methods and proper sources used will lead to

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quality decision making. However, good analyzing capability of the decision maker will enhance the quality decision made.

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CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

This chapter reports the results of the data analysis and evaluates them according to the stated objectives and research problems. It has two primary

purposes The second section describes the inferential analyses, which are results taken from statistical analysis including the descriptive analysis; test of differences and the results of the hypothesis testing. Finally a brief summary of the findings will be presented.

4.1 4.1.1

Goodness of Data Response Rate after the questionnaire was distributed, emails were sent to those who had not

yet responded. After another month, the researcher followed up with phone calls. Finally a total of 126 questionnaires were returned. However, 9 were unusable as they contain in-complete responses. The final sample size used for data analysis was 118. Table 4.1 displays the details. Table 4.1: Rate of return in terms of number and percentage No. of questionnaire Questionnaire distributed on 24th June 345 30th July 2006 Total questionnaire 126 received Received (in the first 38 two weeks) Received (in one month 12 after the first reminder Received (after 1 month 68 after 2nd reminder and

% 100% 36.5% 30.1% 9.5% 54.8%

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Research Report Workshop 9 May 2009 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nik Maheran phone calls) Usable questionnaire Unusable questionnaires 118 9 93.7% 7.1%

4.1.2

Sample Profile

Respondent Profile 4.1.4 Validity and Reliability

Validity Test

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Table 4.6 Measure of sampling adequacy, partial correlation (anti-image matrices) and descriptive statistics for environmental scanning

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 Q10 Q11 Q13 Q14 Mean Std dev

Q1 .810(a) -.088 .086 -.363 -.089 -.187 .112 -.084 .050 -.004 -.001 -.078

Q2 .700(a) -.635 -.043 -.268 -.172 -.148 .163 .230 .112 -.042 -.122

Q3

Q5

Q6

Q7

Q8

Q9

Q10

Q11

Q13

Q14

.679(a) .174 .222 -.005 .102 -.069 -.223 -.154 -.169 -.069

.772(a) .001 -.205 .188 -.088 -.233 -.080 -.199 -.006

.741(a) -.046 .042 -.340 -.320 .136 -.233 .056

.757(a) -.444 -.213 .079 -.151 .325 -.116

.725(a) -.118 -.391 -.247 -.164 .155

.798(a) .013 .053 -.131 .122

3.2735 3.2564 3.3846 3.1624 3.5641 3.5128 3.4017 3.6068 1.27728 1.38922 1.25839 1.32585 1.20620 1.29731 1.24610 1.21028 117 117 117 117 117 117 117 117

.719(a) -.117 .865(a) .188 -.092 .712(a) -.190 -.182 -.539 3.4274 3.1880 3.5385 1.1694 1.33217 1.33609 1 117 117 117

.786(a) 3.4701 1.20754 117 .749 585.004 .000

Kaisers MSA Bartletts Test of Sphericity Sig.

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Table 4.7 Factor analysis and reliability test result on extent of scanning
Items Q1 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 Q10 Q11 Q13 Q14 Types of information Demographic trends affecting demand Advances in technology New concepts in technology Changes in societal values affecting demand Product comparable to competitors Information about cash and investment techniques Internal budgeting and control systems Improve sales level and pattern Companys performance (e.g. expenses, cost) information New organizational design Technology information for product/service enhancement Technology information for product/service efficiency Factor Loading 1 2 3 .065 -.120 .798 .754 .110 -.013 .829 .165 -.279 .065 -.005 .774 .073 .146 .626 -.073 .711 .244 -.015 .923 -.087 -.194 .342 .582 .031 .666 .127 .338 .591 -.121 .784 -.180 .290 .804 -.053 .165 .827 4.505 37.539 37.539 .786 1.797 14.977 52.516 .732 1.300 10.831 63.347

Reliability Cronbach Alpha Eigenvalues Percentage of Common variance Cumulative %

Reliability Test

Table 4.12: Reliability coefficients for the major variables

Variables Method of scanning (Formal/Informal) Technology Economic Competition Source of scanning (Personal/ Impersonal) Technology Economic Competition Source of scanning (External/Internal) Technology Economic Competition Number of items 4 4 4 Item dropped Reliability Cronbach Alpha .723 .753 .624

4 4 4 4 4 4

.670 .776 .598 .707 .790 .689

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4.2 4.2.1

Inferential Analysis Descriptive analysis

Overall Descriptive Analysis

Table 4.13 Descriptive statistics of Independent Variables

Decision N=118 Variables X1: Extent of scanning Technology Economic/financial Competition X2: Method of scanning Technology Economic/financial Competition X3: Source of scanning (Personal/Impersonal) Technology Economic/financial Competition X4: Source of scanning (External/Internal) Technology Economic/financial Competition
Notes:

Mean 3.369 3.371 3.392 3.413 3.469 3.405 2.913 2.989 3.068 2.866 3.047 2.867

Std. Deviation .985 .988 .936 1.046 .848 .752 .743 .863 .767 .779 .917 .747

X1 scale range: 1(not at all) to 5 (great amount) X2 scale range:1 (informal) to 5 (formal) X3 scale range: 1(impersonal) to 5 (personal) X4 scale range: 1(external) to 5 (internal)

4.2.2

Test of Differences .. One-way ANOVA is used to evaluate those differences. Tables 4.16 to

4.20 present the results of one-way ANOVA comparing the extent of scanning done, method used and sources of information used on different environmental sectors across the demographic profiles and profiles of the decisions. appended in Appendix C. Refer also the SPSS output

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Table 4.16 ANOVA results - Extent of scanning by demographic profile

DEMOGRAPHIC Respondent profile: Position Education level Field of expertise Years in the industry Years in the current firm Years in current position Company profile: Type of industry Years in operation Size of company - No. of employees Average revenue Decision profile: Type of decision Size of investment EXTENT OF SCANNING Technology Economic Competition pF-value p-value F-value F-value p-value value 2.369 .480 3.062 .342 .640 1.037 1.628 .893 4.702 1.702 .238 2.410 .098 .620 .051 .795 .591 .358 .205 .447 .011 .187 .870 .071 .455 .956 5.072 .466 1.010 .845 .043 1.701 .738 .154 2.580 1.856 .636 .387 .008 .706 .391 .432 .836 .171 .480 .857 .057 .141 .222 .893 .448 .495 1.834 .039 .061 .643 .536 .110 4.676 1.572 .801 .412 .640 .687 .145 .962 .805 .589 .586 .896 .004 .200

4.2.3

Test of Relationship

Correlation Analysis . .

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Table 4.22 Correlation Between Variables

Mean Std. Dev Technol ogy (X1) Econom ic (X2) Compet ition (X3) Method Econom ic (X4) Method Technol ogy (X5) Method Compet ition (X6) Souce1 Technol ogy (X7) Source1 Econom ic (X8) Source1 Compet ition (X9) Souce2 Technol ogy (X10) Source2 Econom ic (X11) Source2 Compet ition (X12) IPC (X13) Decision Quality (X14)

X1 X2 X3 X4 X5 X6 X7 X8 X9 X10 X11 X12 X13 X14

3.3686 3.3708 3.3919 3.4693 3.4131 3.4053 2.9129 2.9891 3.0682 2.8664 3.0468 2.8674 3.8729 3.7323

.98473 .98803 .93626 .84768 1.0456 3 .75159 .74293 .86289 .76744 .77885 .91704 .74649 .60953 .70879

1.000 .569** .353** .331** .971** .332** -.028 -.141 -.150 -.209* -.116 -.198* .502** .344**

1.000 .497** .482** .433** .354** -.081 -.013 -.166 -.158 .054 -.119 .372** .387**

1.000 .298** .335** .323** -.027 -.110 -.226* -.265** -.052 -.200* .340** .296**

1.000 .338** .541** .032 -.005 -.132 .152 .180 .058 .318** .209* 1.000 .332** .007 -.174 -.133 -.179 -.116 -.184* .487** .294** 1.000 .115 -.045 -.156 .135 .158 .122 .386** .309** 1.000 .469** .495** .569** .366** .397** -.092 -.098

1.000 .502** .315** .666** .386** -.245** -.158

1.000 .346** .330** .561** -.294** -.160

1.000 .449** .436** -.089 -.081

1.000 .506** -.095 -.142

1.000 -.214* -.136

1.000 .513**

1.000

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

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Table 4.25 Model summary of multiple regression analysis

Model 1 (control variable) .040 .000 -.010 .000 .040 Model2 (independent variables) 2.579*** .258 .158 .258 2.809*** Model3 (moderating variable) 3.535*** .343 .246 .085 11.401*** Model4 (Interaction variables) 3.112*** .506 .343 .163 2.086***

F value R square Adjusted R square R square change F change

***significant at the 0.01 level, ** significant at the 0.05 level, * significant at the 0.1 level

Table 4.26 Hierarchical Regression Environmental scanning and Investment Decision making quality
INDEPENDENT VARIABLES DEPENDENT VARIABLE DECISION QUALITY Model Model2 Model3 Model4 1 .047 -.075 .408*** .182* -.148 .199* -.101 .041 .033 .031 -.139 -.011 .027 -.156 .384*** .138 -.156 .144 -.112 .090 .057 .031 -.161 .019 .343*** .000 -.353* .540** .015 -.372** .792*** .032 .140 .238 -.024 -.296 -.273 .316**

Control variables Decision complexity .020 Model variables: Extent of scanning Technology Economic Competition Method of scanning Economic Competition Source (P/IP) of scanning Technology Economic Competition Source (E/I) of scanning Technology Economic Competition Moderating variable Information Processing Capacity

RESEARCH FORMAT-EXAMPLE

Research Report Writing workshop 9 May 2009 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nik Maheran
Interaction variable IPC*Tech IPC*Econ IPC*Comp IPC*Tech(M) IPC*Econ(M) IPC*Comp(M)

3.493* -.977 .486 -2.452* 1.470** 2.480*** IPC*Tech(S1) .071 IPC*Econ(S1) -.606 IPC*Comp(S1) -.153 IPC*Tech(S2) -.054 IPC*Econ(S2) .397 IPC*Comp(S2) .839 ***significant at the 0.01 level, ** significant at the 0.05 level, * significant at the 0.1 level

Table 4.28 below provides a summary of hierarchical regression results for direct relationship and the moderating effect of the relationships between environmental scanning behavior and investment decision quality

Table 4.2 The specific hypotheses and summary of hypotheses testing result
Hypotheses testing H1: The greater the amount of environmental scanning done the better the quality of the investment decisions made H2: Investment decision that focuses more on formal methods of environmental scanning will have better quality than those that focus more on informal methods) Technology (a) Moderate Direct d Economic (b) Moderate Direct d X Competition (c) Direct Moderated

n/a

Supported * weakly supported

X not supported

RESEARCH FORMAT-EXAMPLE

Research Report Writing workshop 9 May 2009 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nik Maheran

Supported * weakly supported

X not supported

4.3 Conclusion In summary, the current studys usable questionnaire of 118 collected via convenient sampling was used for the analysis of the study. Various levels of decision makers who make capital investment decisions in the last two years from various types of companies were analyzed. From the test of goodness of data, it was found that the data was

reasonably good and provide useful basis for the analysis and inference. Result obtained from factor analysis and scale reliability testing also gave satisfactory output.

RESEARCH FORMAT-EXAMPLE

Research Report Writing workshop 9 May 2009 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nik Maheran

CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss and draw conclusions about the research findings and to offer interpretations of the results that may have implications for the future scanning research and for executives concerned with the scanning task. The general outline of the chapter is as follows: (1) Recapitulation of major findings; (2) Discussion; (3) Implications for research; (4) Implications for executives; (5) Methodological limitations; (7) Recommendations for future research; and (8) Conclusion.

5.1

Recapitulation of Major Findings

This research was initiated to understand the nature of environmental scanning undertaken in lieu of investment decision making among Malaysian decision makers.

5.2 5.2.1

Discussion Descriptive results

5.3 5.3.1 5.3.2

Implication Theoretical Implication Practitioners Implication

RESEARCH FORMAT-EXAMPLE

Research Report Writing workshop 9 May 2009 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nik Maheran 5.4 Limitation There are a number of limitations inherent in this study. The identified limitations are: (1) the sample data selected, and (2) the definition of the environment. 5.4.1 5.4.2 Sample selected Definition Of Environmental Sectors

5.5

Recommendation for Future Research

5.6

Conclusion

APPENDIX References Abels, E. (2002). Hot Topics: Environmental Scanning. Bulletin of the American society for Information and Science and Technology. 28(3), 1-4. Abelson, R.P. and Levi, A. (1985). Decision making and decision theory. In Lindzey, G. and Aronson, E (Eds), the handbook of Social Psychology, 3rd Ed. New York: Random House, 231 309.

RESEARCH FORMAT-EXAMPLE