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This work develops a longitudinal analysis of perceived environmental uncertainty applying the Rasch methodology (1960). The environmental uncertainty is defined as an individual's perceived inability to predict the environment accurately (Milliken, 1987). The study focuses on analysing the state uncertainty from the perspective of the information and under the cognitive approach to the business reality.

Rasch measurement theory (1960) is applied, specifically the differential item functioning analysis based on the responses to a survey of SMEs.

The main sources of uncertainty for all the SMEs in the sample are two sectors in their general environment: economic and political-legal ones. These segments are the only ones in the environment that generate uncertainty that in 2016 is significantly different from that in 2019, being lower in the latter year.

This is a pioneering analysis of uncertainty both for its longitudinal nature and the methodology applied.

The concept of environmental uncertainty is recognized as a fundamental element of the strategic management and organizational theory literature. Unfortunately, the development of inconsistent conceptualizations and operationalizations of uncertainty have muddled the true meanings of the construct. In an effort to reverse this disturbing trend, this paper systematically analyzes the historical development of the uncertainty construct. Seminal management literature is used to trace the construct’s evolution over the last 60 years and to speak to the original meanings of its key elements. The rise of the information uncertainty and resource dependence schools is explored, as is the evolution of the construct’s operationalization from simple to complex measures. Insights provided by this analysis form the basis of a categorization scheme for conceptualizations and operationalizations of uncertainty. This categorization and the discussion that accompanies it are intended to provide future researchers with greater precision and consistency in the use of the environmental uncertainty construct.

To present the application of a business model for holistic uncertainty management for twenty‐first century manufacturing enterprises.

A questionnaire survey is carried out to UK manufacturing enterprises to collect relevant data, and analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlation analysis and cluster analysis are performed to infer the results.

It can be concluded that different manufacturing environments suffer different effects of underlying causes of uncertainty on product tardy delivery. The product tardy delivery performance in make‐to‐order (MTO) manufacturing environment is found significantly affected by a wide range of underlying causes of uncertainty. It is interesting to find that mixed‐mode (MM) manufacturing environment has an opposite outcome. Correlation results provide significant evidence that underlying causes of uncertainty do not have linear association with product tardy delivery. This finding reinforces the proposition that the effects of uncertainty are difficult to quantify due to the compound effect. The cluster analyses of the business environmental factors of the manufacturing enterprises in MM, make‐to‐stock (MTS) and MTO environments found that size of enterprise, product variety, product complexity, number of parts, ratio of buy vs make parts, the use of rough‐cut capacity planning, and the use of buffering or dampening techniques in production, influence the effects of underlying causes of uncertainty on product tardy delivery.

Only UK manufacturing enterprises are investigated. The results will be relevant to MTO, MM and MTS manufacturing environments.

The application of the business model has provided useful knowledge to MM, MTS and MTO manufacturing enterprises on which underlying causes of uncertainty are significantly affecting their product tardy delivery performance.

A holistic approach such as the business model has given a solid foundation for the enterprises to evaluate their performance. Using the knowledge of significant underlying causes of uncertainty, the enterprises could then prioritise the effort and devise suitable buffering or dampening techniques.

The effectiveness of marketing activities in firms with product management is, in part, determined by the extent to which the organizational structure is aligned with the uncertainties in the marketplace. Investigates the relationship between various dimensions of firm′s marketing organizational structure (i.e. centralization, formalization and structural differentiation) and the degree to which the product manager confronts environmental uncertainty. Claims the empirical results indicate that the organizational structure which applies to the product manager is related to uncertainty in the market environment of the firm and that product managers′ authority is not matched to the degree of uncertainty in the environment. Discusses the implications of these results in terms of the product manager′s performance in varying organizational structures.

Reassesses the relationships between managerial perceptions of movement and discontinuities in the environment, and managers’ abilities and proneness toward engaging in information‐gathering activities. Survey data from several organizations in different industries were collected to investigate the scanning behavior of managers. Finds empirical support for some of the relationships that were proposed. Explores possible explanations for the lack of support for several important relationships that have been advanced in the literature, and submits managerial implications and suggestions for future research based on the findings.

This paper seeks to show how enterprise resource planning (ERP) could create a competitive advantage for small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs).

The main methods used in this study were questionnaires and interviews based on the application of an uncertainty diagnosing business model. Data were collected, using a questionnaire administrated to 126 SMEs, in the form of percentage contributions of the underlying causes of uncertainty (structured in the business model) on product late delivery. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was carried out in SPSS to analyse the effects of the underlying causes of uncertainty in SMEs.

ERP could create a competitive advantage in delivery for SMEs by being responsive and agile to change, but not to uncertainty. Results suggested that only a few features in an ERP system were used to deal with change due to uncertainty. It was found that SMEs generally use their ERP system to generate a plan for production and use it as a guideline. SMEs concurrently use a range of buffering or dampening techniques to tackle uncertainty for crating a competitive advantage in delivery.

The application of the business model in SMEs has provided useful knowledge to make‐to‐stock (MTS), make‐to‐order (MTO) and mixed‐mode (MM) manufacturing enterprises in which underlying causes of uncertainty were significantly affecting their product late delivery performance.

This is a highly original application of an uncertainty diagnosing business model to SMEs using ERP systems.

The aim of this paper is to investigate how enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems could create a competitive advantage for small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). The objectives of this study are to examine how responsive and agile the existing ERP systems are to change and uncertainty, and to identify the types of change and uncertainty in SME manufacturing environments.

A mixed methodology is used in this study, which involves literature review, questionnaire survey and follow‐up, in‐depth telephone interviews. An uncertainty diagnosing business model is applied to collect data from SME manufacturers in make‐to‐stock (MTS), make‐to‐order (MTO) and mixed mode (MM) manufacturing environments in a structured manner, and to analyse the effects of the underlying causes of uncertainty on product late delivery in MTS, MTO and MM manufacturing environments in SMEs. Some 108 enterprises responded (86 per cent response rate), of which 64 are SMEs. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is carried out in SPSS to analyse the effects of the underlying causes of uncertainty on product late delivery in MTS, MTO and MM manufacturing environments in SMEs.

ANOVA results show that a different group of underlying causes of uncertainty significantly affects the product late delivery performance in MTS, MTO and MM manufacturing environments in SMEs. This study found that ERP could improve responsiveness and agility to change, but not to uncertainty. SMEs could create a competitive advantage by being more responsive to change in the ERP system before generating purchase and work order. ERP systems could not deal with uncertainty due to its stochastic and unpredictable nature. SMEs use a range of buffering or dampening techniques under uncertainty to be competitive in delivery.

It can be concluded that the application of the business model in SMEs that use ERP has provided useful knowledge about the significant underlying causes of uncertainty that affect product late delivery performance in MTS, MTO and MM manufacturing environments. Using this knowledge, similar SMEs could then prioritise the effort and devise suitable buffering or dampening techniques to manage the causes of uncertainty and hence prevent any changes to the ERP system.

Resource allocation is challenged by dynamic environments where changes are frequent. The purpose of this paper is to identify resource allocation challenges and practices in service units that perform both project and non-project activities in dynamic environments. Its goal is to show that top-down mechanisms of project resource allocation need to be replaced by or supplemented with mechanisms that are more flexible.

A qualitative comparative case study was conducted in two service units of two project-based firms. The main source of data consisted of semi-structured interviews with 17 service managers and staff members.

This study shows that resource allocation is not necessarily a top-down process at all, and the practices are context-dependent. Two more flexible approaches are revealed – hybrid resource allocation and bottom-up resource allocation – as examples of managing resource allocation in service units that engage in projects under uncertain conditions. The results of the analysis highlight prioritisation and adapting to change and delay as the main issues that managers face in allocating resources to different types of projects and service activities in dynamic environments.

The two target companies chosen for the qualitative research design limit the analysis to project-based firms in a business-to-business context. Further, the viewpoint of the service unit is central to the study. Studying project resource allocation in different organisational contexts and uncovering the perspectives of product development and delivery units would offer promising directions for future research.

The study reveals that in dynamic project settings such as service organisations, top-down mechanisms of resource allocation need to be accompanied by other, more flexible approaches to ensure the sufficient resourcing of projects and related services in dynamic environments. Companies need to establish practices for resource allocation changes that are caused by re-prioritising tasks and accommodating changes and delays in their project and service activities.

Compared to a top-down perspective taken in previous research, the study proposes a more flexible approach for resource allocation in constantly changing environments with different project and service activities. Previous studies have focussed on resource competition between projects, placing project managers in the central role for resource allocation. By contrast, this study discusses hybrid and bottom-up resource allocation, both of which involve broader personnel engagement in resource allocation tasks, drawing on the experience of all employees.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the effects on performance of two types of misfits (overfit vs underfit) as well as two types of fits (high-high fit vs low-low fit) between environmental uncertainty and supply chain flexibility.

The two asymmetry hypotheses have been tested with survey data from 212 Chinese manufacturing firms.

The results in general provided empirical evidences for the asymmetric effects in the fits and misfits between environmental uncertainty and supply chain flexibility. For the same degree of misfit, underfit deteriorates performance more than overfit. In addition, high supply chain flexibility fitting high environmental uncertainty (i.e. high-high fit) results in a higher performance than low supply chain flexibility fitting low environmental uncertainty (i.e. low-low fit).

It suggests that managers should strive to avoid the underfit of supply chain flexibility rather than the overfit, if the perfect fit is impossible to achieve. In addition, as it is beneficial to realize the fit of supply chain flexibility to high levels of environmental uncertainty, managers should probably embrace the highly uncertain environment and enhance the supply chain flexibility of their organizations to meet the increasing uncertainty of environment.

Fit and misfit are the core concepts to understand the relationships among environmental uncertainty, supply chain flexibility strategy, and performance. While the existing literature highlights the differential performance consequences of fit vs misfit between environmental uncertainty and supply chain flexibility strategy, the effects on performance are assumed to be the same for the two types of misfits, and two types of fits. The authors challenge these symmetry assumptions by arguing that overfit has a less negative effect on performance than underfit, and high-high fit has a stronger positive effect than low-low fit. The authors found empirical evidence in a large sample of Chinese manufacturing firms.

This paper examines the relationship between environmental uncertainty and tax avoidance at the firm level. We posit that managers faced with more uncertain environments are likely to engage in more tax avoidance activities. We find a significant and negative relationship between environmental uncertainty and effective tax rates, and our results persist through a battery of robust checks. We further find that managerial ability mitigates the above relationship. Moreover, we find that small, highly leveraged, and innovative firms operating in uncertain environments engage in more tax avoidance.