Gerard J. Lewis

Perceived Environmental Uncertainty: The Extension of Miller’s Scale to the Natural Environment

Large businesses are professionalizing their approach to environmental management, in pursuit of quality management, cost effective eco‐efficiency and regulatory compliance. However, recent evidence suggests that business corporations are not integrating the natural environment into their strategic thinking. One of the major reasons for this is the contingent relationship between perceived uncertainty in the business environment and strategic decision making. This paper describes the development and testing of a Perceived Environmental Uncertainty (PEU) measurement scale for the natural environment. The new PEU scale is based on Miller’s (1993) PEU scale for the commercial environment and grounded in the environmental management theory. It is also shown to possess very good reliability and dimensionality. The new PEU scale was applied in the form of self‐report questionnaire. Respondents were senior executives (n = 198) from the UK textile industry. We specifically looked for variations in levels of executives’ PEU along the industry supply chain. As a result of applying the new scale, our findings show that the natural environment presents significantly higher levels of PEU for executives in the textile making‐up/retail sector. The major cause of uncertainty for the textile making‐up/retail sector is that firms in this sector are at the end of the supply chain and therefore exposed to up‐stream risk, which is often very difficult to manage.

The transformation of the music industry supply chain: A major label perspective

This article explores the impact of the Internet on the supply chain for music. Music is a massive global industry worth

Evaluating the impact of the internet on barriers to entry in the music industry

38 billion annually. The global music industry is dominated by the “big five” major record companies. However, as this article will show, the advent of the Internet is having a significant impact on both the supply chain for music and the dominance of the big record labels. The article begins by describing the background to our research and the methods employed. It then goes on to examine how the Internet is transforming the supply chain for music. This is followed by a discussion of the impact of piracy on the music industry. The article concludes by arguing that while the future may look bleak for the major record labels, it looks much more positive for artists and consumers.

Internet Crisis Potential: The Importance of a Strategic Approach to Marketing Communications

Purpose – Music can be copied and distributed almost without cost via the internet, while payment and distribution technologies are reducing the transaction costs of its commercial exchange. In the case of MP3 the cost of swapping music files is negligible, for both the supplier uploading the file and the receiver who is downloading the music. In light of these developments, this paper seeks to put forward the proposition that the main barrier to entry in the music sector has been the ownership and protection of artistic content in the supply chain.Design/methodology/approach – The paper focuses on a review of the concepts relating to “barriers to entry”, since entry into the music industry is central to the explanation of the incumbents’ strategic responses. The pre‐ and post‐web supply chains are also assessed from a “barrier to entry” perspective.Findings – This paper argues that the internet is destabilising the supply chain for music by challenging the pre‐web role and domination of the music industr...

A cybernetic view of environmental management: the implications for business organizations

The Internet as a communications medium has the ability to instantaneously distribute information to a mass audience at low‐cost and provides a powerful basis for Internet Crisis Potential (ICP) when stakeholders negatively affect the reputation of a corporation and/or its brands. This paper focuses on an exploratory study that analyses current ICP management practice. More specifically, primary research investigates how the ICP is currently perceived and managed by corporations. The findings highlight a gap between corporate attitudes in terms of the necessity to manage the ICP and business practice. Online monitoring is undertaken irregularly and stakeholder and issues management on the Internet are not conducted on a constant basis by the majority of corporations. These elements, however, are regarded by managers as important for Internet crisis prevention. Although the integration of the Internet into the corporate crisis communication strategy is realised by the majority of corporations, only a minority has it fully integrated, for example, by having a “dark site” prepared. The implications of the findings are that communications professionals should gain knowledge and expertise of using and understanding the Internet medium. The strategic importance to manage the ICP needs to be communicated at all levels in the organization. An ICP management process is also recommended.

Sustainability and Viability

Current environmental management practice is judged to be mechanistic and based on previous experience with health and safety and with quality management systems. In support of the claim that systems approaches to management are required, the question is asked: what is the systemic nature of environmental management and will it lead an organization towards some concept of sustainable business practice? To try and answer this question the Viable System Model (VSM) developed by Stafford Beer was used to analyse current environmental management practice from a systems perspective in seven manufacturing organizations. The findings suggest that significant structural changes in organizations will be necessary as well as changes in management practices (core competencies) and attitudes if organizations are to become viable. Tomorrows business strategy is likely to be driven much more by cooperation rather than by competition. Some possible implications for business are: (1) Corporate portfolios will be organized around the supply chain (or flows of energy and materials) instead of products and markets. (2) Strategy will not only continue to be made at the corporate and business unit levels but also at the industry level. (3) Such developments will require much higher degrees of integration and cooperation than is currently practised between companies.

Strategiefindung unter Unsicherheit in KMUs

In this short paper, it is not possible to explore in full detail all the arguments which build the foundations for our research. Only very general descriptions of the phenomena involved, backed-up by broad indications of the relevant literature, can be given. This is especially the case as the topic of this paper—Global Sustainability—is a vast subject.

Understanding How Concerns for the Natural Environment are Integrated into Prectical Strategic Decision Making: An Application of Ashby’s Law

Alle von uns treffen Entscheidungen jeden Tag unseres Lebens: Was soll ich essen, welche E-Mail sollte ich als erstes beantworten und so weiter. In diesem Kapitel geht es nicht um diese Art von Entscheidungen – in diesem Kapitel geht es um die grosen Entscheidungen, die wir machen, vielleicht nur einmal in unserem Leben: ein Haus zu kaufen, in ein fremdes Land auszuwandern, einen Partner zu wahlen. In der Wirtschaft ist es nicht anders. Wir treffen unentwegt Routine-Entscheidungen, etwa die Einstellung einer Produktionsanlage zu andern, einen Telefonanruf zu beantworten und so weiter. Was Manager nicht jeden Tag tun, ist die Produktionsanlage zu kaufen oder in ein neues Telekommunikationssystem zu investieren. Diese Arten von Entscheidungen sind andersgeartet – sie sind strategischer Natur.

The measurement of environmental performance: an application of Ashby's law

We have shown that Ashby’s Law can be applied to measure organisation performance and inform our understanding of strategic decision making.This is a positive first step since although research on the development of environmental performance indicators currently occupies a major area of activity in environmental management, it will be some time before criteria and metrics will contribute to organisational comparisons in this area In the meantime, a more promising way forward would be to develop the application of Ashby’s (1956) Law to cover non-rational (heuristic based) decision making. This would provide a more accurate picture of requisite variety in the organisation.