Search results

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of the external environment on the strategic thinking dimensions in Malaysia and Palestine on the banking sector.

This paper focuses on dynamism and complexity in political and economic external environments. This study uses qualitative methodology through a comparative case study method. Purposive sampling was used to collect data from in-depth semistructured interviews with 33 bank executives from Malaysia and 17 from Palestine.

The findings revealed that the banking sector in both Malaysia and Palestine shared five common strategic thinking dimensions, including vision, creativity, conceptual thinking, futurism and opportunity. However, a sixth dimension, intent-focused, was unique to Palestinian bank executives. This study indicates that Palestine’s financial strategic thinking environment is more dynamic and complex than Malaysia’s. Additionally, the study highlights the significant influence of both microenvironments (such as types of banks) and the macroenvironment (such as political and economic situations). These findings hold important implications for decision-makers in the banking sector of both countries.

As with many studies, this study has some limitations. First, the analysis examines only the turbulent and stable environment in the two countries by using a qualitative approach which enables the analysis of thoughts and actions and exposes the beliefs, perceptions, mental maps and structures of belief in their perceptions (Cavana et al., 2001). As such, the results are limited to a particular time, date and geographical location; thus, opinions and perceptions might be altered due to changes in the external political and economic environment. The second limitation of this work is that the case study might not be appropriate for generalization (Stake, 1978). Finally, the limited number of female participants in Palestine shows a high level of inequality compared to Malaysian participants.

This study explores the implication of uncertain environments at the national level on executives’ cognition and actions, links the micro- and macro-environment of the banking industry to a theoretical perspective and develops a conceptual circular model to show the effect of macro environments on bank performance. The findings offer practical contributions to the current literature, providing insights for executives to navigate a dynamic and complex banking industry.

This study fills the literature gap by exploring how strategic thinking dimensions triggered by macro- and micro-environments impact banking sector performance in Malaysia and Palestine.

The development of prefabricated buildings has become one of the primary solutions to transform the traditional construction industry around the world. Incentive policy is one of the important driving factors for the development of prefabricated building. The policy system in the field of prefabricated buildings needs to be improved urgently. However, there is still a dearth of research on how incentive policies exert impact on the development of prefabricated buildings. This paper aims to reveal the impact mechanisms of different types of policies on the development system of prefabricated buildings.

This study categorizes prefabricated building policies, constructs a system dynamics model of prefabricated building policies and conducts scenario simulations to examine the impact and sensitivity of different types of policies on the development system of prefabricated buildings.

The results show that compulsory policies play a greater role in the early stage of prefabricated building development and need to be withdrawn at the right time. Preferential and encouraging policies play an incentive role in the middle and later stages of prefabricated building development. Encouraging policies predominate in the later stage of prefabricated building development. Based on the research results, policy recommendations for prefabricated building development are put forward respectively from the government, developers and consumers.

The research results are expected to make up for the lack of clear policies paths in existing research and provide theoretical references for the formulation and optimization of future policies.