Universitatea Politehnica din București

Ingineria și Managementul Sistemelor de Afaceri

Business Model Flexibility: Detecting

Weak Signals by Internet-Based
Environmental Scanning

Îndrumător: Student:
Prof.dr.ing. Mihai Caramihai Dumitrescu Robert-Marian

Anul 2019, București

Content
1. Introduction: Weak Signals and the dynamic environment of firms

2. State of the Art. Literature review

3. Internet as an Environmental Scanning Tool. Weak Signals Detection

4. Methodology. Research Design

5. Results and discussions

6. Conclusions

7. References
1. Introduction
Firms in extremely dynamic environments specializing in innovation
in their merchandise and services typically encounter issues regarding
fast amendment and increasing discontinuities. There are numerous
historical examples during which corporations couldn't “sense and
respond” to future changes, and so lost important revenue.
Due to environmental uncertainty, managers have difficulty shaping
companies by ways that are unable to address strategic surprises. the
foremost responsibilities of managers are to take decisions and formulate
and implement ways that among the domain of strategic management, a
effective strategic method formulation that takes future changes to
conduct marketing scanning one amongst the fundamentals of scanning is
the investigation of weak signals of modification.
The weak signal plan was introduced by Igor in 1974 to beat the
problems of long-range coming up with. Weak signals are printed as
"threats (external or internal), events and developments that are still too
incomplete to allow an academic degree of correct approximation of their
impacts figure out their full-fledged responses."
Weak signals detection will recognize future disadvantage areas and
opportunities. all the same, four queries still remain: but can firms see
early warning signs of returning changes? However, they can convert
situation threats into possibility? Is there a assistance tool that can help
managers observe the blind spots? Is there the way to hunt down
applicable knowledge for improved decision-making?The role of the web
in weak signals detection is critical, the WWW is taken into account a
great tool for detective work weak signals in environmental scanning
processes. External environmental data like client market, business,
journal articles, diplomatic, and engineering is shown on the net, before
its effects are discovered within the planet. though the WWW could be a
substantial supply of data, perceptive important amounts of knowledge on
the web consumes abundant time and energy, that ultimately can't be
accomplished by a normal person.
2. State of the Art. Literature review
This approach consists of some steps that followed in a correct order will
offer the best solution for a company that wants to conquer any weak
signal.
It is potential to manually collect social media knowledge in an
exceedingly range of ways - screen saving, note-taking, and saving
web-pages. However, wherever massive volumes of information are
concerned, the foremost acceptable methodology is to gather the
information mechanically. this can be done through affiliation to a
platform’s ‘Application Programming Interface’. The API may be a
portal that acts as a technical gatekeeper of the information command by
the social media platform. they permit associate degree external
computing system to speak with and acquire info from the social media
platform. every API differs within the rules they set for this access: the
kind of information they permit researchers to access, the format they
manufacture this knowledge in, and also the quantities that they
manufacture it in.

Fig 1 - Literature Review Framework [4]

The construct of environmental scanning was 1st introduced by Agular in

1965 “as the acquiring and use of knowledge regarding events,
trends, association in an organization’s external surroundings,
the data of that aided management in coming up with the organization’s
upcoming course of study of action” [5][6]. Decker, Wagner aforesaid
there was a strong relation between environmental reproduction and
enterprise success. Situation reproduction has been further associated
with improved structure performance [7].
In strategic management literature, bound researchers
have planned sensible ways for police investigation weak signals. Decker
et al. (2005) [8] performed a study to notice weak signals by
conducting associate environmental scanning on the web, however his
approach was restricted to solely fifty documents. Similarly, Uskali (2005)
[9] tried to seek out weak signals within the monetary news of 1 end daily
newspaper. though Uskali argued that there have been weak
signals within the print media texts, proposing a scientific approach for
future analysis didn’t succeed.
The role of the web in weak signals detection is important. the
planet Wide net is taken into account a great tool for police
investigation weak communication in situation scanning processes [8].
External environmental data like client market, business, analysis institute,
news article, diplomatic, and engineering is shown on the online, before
its effects are ascertained within the globe. though the
planet Wide net could be a sizable supply of
knowledge, observant vital amounts of knowledge on the
web consumes abundant time and energy, that ultimately can not be
accomplished by a standard person [8].
In the last number of decades, students have studied the results of
environmental scanning on structure scheme and action. Choo and Auster
(1993), Sourmunen and Parkes (1988) found that World Health
Organization understand larger environmental uncertainty tend to try and
do additional scanning. supported evidences from literature, Choo
(2001) finished that environmental scanning is joined to
improved structure performance. In an exceedingly recent survey
of eighty four Southern Nigerian firms, found that the
fundamental objectives of environmental scanning for ninety four p.c of
organizations were to scale back uncertainty, take a look at the suitability
of activity already taken, and new existing information. Watching and
analyzing the surroundings helps the firm to search out technological and
market opportunities and so will increase the flexibility of companies to
enter new sphere revealed that situation
scanning completely influences the flexibility of a firm to make new
competencies by building the premise for managing
discontinuous modification. Zahra and Martyr (2002) declared that
“absorptive capability is that the power of the firm to acknowledge the
worth of, acquire, assimilate, and apply data from external sources” (p.
186). This capabilitymay be enhanced by situation replication processes
(Cohen & Levintal, 1990). Environmental scanning
brings datafrom varied sources into the firm, that will increase the data of
the firm and helps workers to search out new opportunities. However,
scanning not solely enhances the structure performance, how ever
additionally will increase the extent of communication among workers.
Consequently, in step with Cho (2002), scanning has consequence on four
areas of the company: Connection of common vision,
important designing, management, and future orientations.
Schwarz (2005) [10] aims to spot arising technical school technologies
relevant to high tech firms in Europe. sadly, this approach has not been
applied in apply, because it needs a lot of manual effort as a result of an
automatic environmental scanning tool wasn't obtainable. Further, the
results of the agglomeration approach are of inferiority. In distinction, the
approaches of Decker et al. (2005) [8] and Uskali (2005)[9]
are applied with success. However, to avoid high levels of manual effort,
these approaches limit the quantity of retrieved documents to a tiny
low price and are so not thought-about wide scope Internet-based
environmental scanning approaches. Yoo (2009) [11] provides an
automatic approach for Internet-based environmental scanning
and agglomeration, and an extra data structure-based approach is
provided by Yoon (2012) [12] to sight weak signals from web Day and
Schoemaker (2005) have urged that companies monitor blogs, chat rooms
and websites once grouping info from customers and complainers
and, during this approach, develop higher peripherial vision.
Managers ought to conjointly concentrate to employees’ proposition,
lost-sales reports, and contracts won by competition to search
out helpful info. the globe Wide net is taken into report to be a priceless
tool for police research weak impressive in situation scanning processes
[8]. info regarding the external atmosphere as well as, customers markets,
businesses, analysis institutes, news articles, social relation, and
engineering is accessible on the online long before its effects
are ascertained within the globe. However, the massive quantity of data
on the general public net is hazy and screaming, and it consumes time to
search out the correct info through regular search engines like Google or
Alta Vista [8].
Thus, the identification of weak signals
helps call manufacturers remember of events prior to which will influence
future selections [13]. an additional definition of weak signals describes
them as unstructured info that have low content price at the
moment however do have aspects of being a chance or threat while not a
particular target [14]. If the content info becomes a lot of concrete
by determinate the impact of the chance or threat on a particular target,
then a weak signal becomes a robust signal [15]. news associated
with star cells.

3. Internet as an Environmental Scanning Tool.

Weak Signals Detection
The www continues to be an breathtaking info supply for several
firms. The acquisition of immense amounts of data on the market on the
net has adult dramatically. By victimisation the net for environmental
scanning, organizations will get various info freed from charge.Studies
have assessed the impact of victimisation net sources on varied structure
aspects. the net encompasses a positive impact on the standard of
competitive information and ultimately on structure strategic edges.
Organizations integrate the net in crisis things and located that it will
facilitate organizations with conducting higher environmental scans and
finds far more helpful info than they get from ancient sources, therefore
aiding in preparation for potential crises. Some delineated the net as a
helpful selling tool, one that helps organizations to gather info from
clients for higher and quicker customer price. though the market
atmosphere has strategic importance for organizations, atmospherics
scans on the net shouldn't be restricted to the market environment. for
instance, organizations ought to scan their clients and their competition so
as to know what their customers need and what their competitors provide.
However, managers sometimes avoid playacting systematic
environmental scans as a result of, in their opinion, the method could be
too advanced or the organization may encounter info overload.
notwithstanding, it's argued that victimization the web in overall business
ways and competitive markets, firms could increase revenues, cut back
their prices, and promote social control effectiveness. Therefore,
organizations that regularly do environmental scanning on the web are
doubtless to be higher at responding to environmental changes.
Ansoff, a Russian mathematician, introduced an idea called weak
communication for stopping distant planning or strategic planning
problems. Ansoff highlighted weak signals as "external or internal
warnings, events and developments that are still too incomplete to allow
for a correct assessment of their impact and / or to see their full
responses."
According to him, in order for a firm to react quickly to uncertain
surroundings, it should be prepared early in time to react to any signs of
knowing the potential threats and opportunities; if the company waits
until the knowledge becomes adequate enough for everyone to respond, it
should face the situation. On the other hand, if they accept imprecise
information, knowledge may not be accomplished enough to assistance
the strategy. to address this disadvantage, the organization should scans
the surroundings sometimes to identify any change signal and build up
possible plans and actions as soon as possible.
The role of weak signals is being studied by many companies, but finding
them is not an easy process and nothing guarantees success, even if each
step is known.
4.Methodology. Research design
How can you pinpoint the early signs of technological change? The study
has used many theories and opinions to integrate a systematic, systematic,
unique framework that examines the emergence and development of
recent technologies. has supported this theoretical lens, the study has
developed an ingenious investigation strategy to explore the instructive
power of the projected frame and to take a look at several sentences.
although the theoretical framework of the study might recommend a
nature of the social world composed of interpretations - a social creative
person read - the study does not depend on the participants' understanding
to take into account the technological evolution method. Also, the style of
analysis did not seek to investigate a variation theory to clarify the
emergence and development of technological trends. Instead, the study
aimed at proposing and testing a collection of minimal social processes
necessary for the emergence and development of technological trends.
this type of procedure refers to a research strategy in which the researcher
uses a theoretical lens that guides the entire empirical study and combines
consecutive quantitative and qualitative strategies to explore and promote
a particular disadvantage of research.
The Internet business was elite because the case study, as a result of the
network, was far from the most important technological breakthrough in
the last decades and changed the planet in elementary ways. many studies
have shown clear evidence that net technologies have had an important
outcome in the economic process. Therefore, the net business offered an
interesting field, with potential stakeholders interested not only in
participation but also in our findings.
Analysis style is the most pleasing face-to-face interviews with net
consultants, rather than a review of storage documentation. Four main
reasons supported this decision:
1) Transformational projected interviews did not require the scientist to
have in-depth experience in the technology below investigation;
2) Transformational conceptual interviews have avoided the challenge of
the quality of existing information in the secondary supply analysis;
3) Transformational interviews offered the chance to produce a common
procedure for current technology information practices; and 4) interviews
that offered the opportunity to act with individuals directly involved in
adopting the technology in question.
The case study has jointly examined the longer term of net technologies
for 3 reasons:
1) there was an interest in analyzing exploration of how net technologies
followed with a group of net experts;
2) there was a need to provide a meaningful profit outcome for our
participants in the analysis (for example, a forecast exercise); and
3) provided a chance to research foresight information through our
theoretical lenses.

4. Results and discussions

The case study examined net technologies and trends over the last 10
years. A 10 year, schematic and inexpensive balance in the compromise
between participants' memories and proof of social and technological
change in trade. although net trade is thinking of a rapidly changing
environment, new and ambiguous new social and technological practices
require time. On the other hand, it has been thought that a ten-year period
has been associated with the applicable medical care period to remind the
discourse conditions that our consultants have strengthened in their recent
qualified lives. For these two reasons, a ten-year period was a cheap and
sensitive period for our analysis.
 Fig 1 - Procedure of analyzing

The trends of this study counsel that the projected model with
success reduced the documents into the tiniest set that contained a lot
of surprising results. These tendency are catchy as they provide an
effective cost-effective approach to performing Internet scanning. the
information on the net is free of charge, so the computer code applied and,
moreover, it is open; so organizations will access and be hidden
information simply and in front of their competitors. in addition, this
the systematic approach aligns absolutely with a wide range of documents
in an associate degree in an extremely timely manner and applies simply
in any context. It will be wont to overcome the issues of weak signals
detection in situation replication processes initiated by Ansof (1975) as a
result of it's the way of moving from the traditional purpose of read of
strategic management to a a lot of fashionable one as displayed in
Table one. Complying with Ansof’s actual time strategical interpret of a
company (1980), this technique aims at preventing strategic surprises,
minimizing surprise harm and reacting to danger and opportunities earlier
than time.
5. Conclusions
Situation scanning on the web not only improves the visual form of a
business, but will further increase the firm's assimilation capacity by
enhancing the acquisition of information. information acquisition "refers
to company routines and processes that allow the research, processing,
interpretation and retrieval of data obtained from external sources." This
external information brings a company's diversity of information and
enhances its assimilative accumulating capacity, eventually sanctioning
the company to assimilate and exploit new information whenever it is
needed. The attributes of the ability to obtain information are intensity,
speed and direction.
6. References
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pdf
2. http://www.demos.co.uk/files/DEMOS_Canada_paper.pdf
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Innovation in the Internet Industry, Julio Noriega Velasco
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Scanning,Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2011
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by chief executive officers in the Canadian Telecommunication Industry (Doctoral
dissertation). Retrieved from http://choo.fis.utoronto.ca/fis/respub/choo.diss.pdf
7. Choo, C. W. (1993). Environmental Scanning: Acquisition and use of information
by chief executive officers in the Canadian Telecommunication Industry (Doctoral
dissertation). Retrieved from http://choo.fis.utoronto.ca/fis/respub/choo.diss.pdf
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