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The purpose of this paper is to understand how the consistency between objective and perceived environmental uncertainty might affect supply chain flexibilities that cope with supply chain risk.

This study adopted a case study of comparative four companies in order to obtain an in-depth knowledge of the environmental conditions under which the companies implement different types of supply chain risk management (SCRM) strategies: logistics flexibility and relationship flexibility.

The case analysis not only distinguished the different effects of objective and perceived environmental uncertainty on supply chain flexibility, but also established the propositions about the effects of the consistency between objective and perceived environmental uncertainty on logistics flexibility and relationship flexibility in SCRM.

In principle, supply chain flexibility aims to cope with complex and turbulent environments. Yet, empirical findings about the effects of environmental uncertainty on supply chain flexibility are inconclusive. This study addressed this question by differentiating between objective and perceived environmental uncertainty as well as between logistics and relationship supply chain flexibilities.

The aim of this paper is to move toward a holistic model of organizational interpretation under uncertainty. This paper makes a series of novel conceptual propositions regarding the associations between state, effect and response uncertainty and the organizational interpretation process.

This conceptual paper extends existing conceptual work by distinguishing between general and issue-specific scanning and linking the interpretation process to three different types of perceived uncertainty: state, effect and response uncertainty.

It is proposed that environmental scanning leads to lower state and effect uncertainty, i.e. less uncertainty regarding the estimation of probabilities of events occurring in the external environment of the organization and of their consequences. It is further proposed that scanning leads to higher levels of perceived control over events and that the actual interpretation of events, in opportunity/threat terms, drives irregular issue-specific scanning and organizational reactions to such events.

The paper suggests a way to test links between organizational interpretation and uncertainty that might help explain and untangle some of the conflicting empirical results found in the extant literature. The paper illustrates how the literature could benefit from re-conceptualizing the perceived environmental uncertainty construct to take into account different types of uncertainty.

For practitioners, this paper emphasizes the importance of environmental scanning and how scanning practices can lead to general alertness, to more positive event interpretations and how interpretations form responses to opportunities in the environment.

This paper extends on existing work by linking the interpretation process to three different types of uncertainty (state, effect and response uncertainty) with several novel and testable propositions. The paper also differentiates clearly general (regular) scanning from issue-specific (irregular) scanning. Finally, the paper provides a unifying view, piecing together in one picture elements that have so far been dispersed in the literature.

This paper aims to present a meta‐analysis to test the competing hypotheses that arise from structural contingency theory (SCT) and transaction cost analysis (TCA) about how environmental uncertainty affects the strategic marketing policy of forward vertical integration (VI).

The meta‐analysis focuses on directional hypothesis tests rather than effect sizes in a set of 84 tests drawn from 29 published studies. It employs the C‐OAR elements of Rossiter's C‐OAR‐SE framework to validate construct definitions and their measures within these studies.

Although the results confirm the TCA hypothesis that asset specificity favours forward VI, the results for the effect of environmental uncertainty on forward VI do not favour either of the two competing hypotheses, but instead show that methodological orientation, international context, and historical time period moderate effects across studies and tests.

The findings imply that the relative ability of SCT and TCA to predict the effect of environmental uncertainty on forward VI in marketing may reflect real historical patterns of integration activity as a response to uncertain environments. In particular, in a new economy characterised by globalisation and rapid technological change, an increasing number of industries may face levels of uncertainty so high that they are increasingly less manageable through forward VI, a situation that broadly though tentatively favours the SCT prediction.

Since no single empirical study has explicitly tested the implied competing uncertainty hypotheses from SCT and TCA, and since published meta‐analyses of VI have only considered the TCA hypothesis and never the competing SCT hypothesis and have in every instance pooled studies of backward and forward VI, this study develops a meta‐analysis for this purpose.

This study aims to extend ambidexterity theory from the perspective of organisational learning and examine how process ambidexterity, which comprises operational flexibility and operational routine, responds to environmental uncertainty and ultimately reduces organisational risks.

This study tests the hypotheses by analysing 464 annual reports of 115 listed companies in the Chinese agricultural and food industry using content and secondary data analyses. Four case studies are also provided.

The results show that (1) environmental uncertainty has a positive effect on either operational flexibility or operational routine; (2) both operational flexibility and operational routine have negative effects on organisational risks, supporting the view that process ambidexterity mediates the relationship between environmental uncertainty and organisational risks; and (3) organisational slack plays the role of “double-edged sword” by negatively moderating the effect of environmental uncertainty on operational flexibility and positively moderating the effect of environmental uncertainty on operational routine.

In an uncertain environment, companies are exposed to greater risk. This study contributes to risk management in three ways: first, it extends ambidexterity theory to process management and proposes how process ambidexterity balances operational flexibility and routines. Second, it distinguishes between the different conditions under which flexibility or routines are superior. Third, it explains the mechanisms related to how organisations can resolve environmental uncertainty into risk through process ambidexterity.

The entrepreneurial process often cannot be explained by a single entrepreneurial theory. Instead, it is more likely the result of the interaction between various entrepreneurial behavior patterns and different environmental conditions. However, existing research has frequently overlooked the complexity inherent in the entrepreneurial phenomenon. Building on a configurational perspective, this study aims to examine how new ventures can use different behavioral configurations to achieve high performance amid various uncertain environments.

Based on the survey data from 143 new start-ups in China’s software industry, this study uses fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).

This study jointly considers multiple entrepreneurial behaviors − causation, effectuation and entrepreneurial bricolage and different types of environmental uncertainty − state uncertainty, effect uncertainty and response uncertainty. The findings reveal three behavioral configurations for high/nonhigh new venture performance.

This study expands previous insights into the relationship between entrepreneurial behaviors and new venture performance from the perspective of configurational theory. Moreover, it offers new insights into the types of uncertainty, further refining our understanding of the uncertainties inherent in entrepreneurial activities.

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.

Research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) within the real estate sector is limited, and the precise workings of its impact are still unclear. Under the premise that real estate enterprises face environmental uncertainty in China, this study explored the impact of CSR on real estate enterprise value.

To investigate the impact of CSR on enterprise value, we studied 111 real estate enterprises with A-shares listed on Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2010 to 2020, and performed empirical tests to determine the moderating effect of environmental uncertainty on this relationship.

(1) The fulfillment of corporate social responsibility (CSR) significantly influences the value of real estate enterprises. A sub-dimensional analysis reveals that fulfilling stakeholder and social welfare responsibilities within CSR positively impacts enterprise value, whereas environmental responsibility does not exert a notable effect. (2) The uncertainty associated with environmental changes profoundly affects the relationship between CSR and the value of real estate enterprises. More precisely, as environmental uncertainty increases, it amplifies the beneficial impact of CSR on enterprise value.

These findings are valuable for real estate enterprises as they navigate the transition towards sustainable development, and they also provide insight for the government in formulating policies aimed at regulating the real estate sector.

This study complements the existing discussion and research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and enterprise value in the real estate industry, while elucidating the underlying mechanism of how environmental uncertainty mediates the relationship between the two.

The aim of the study was to determine how the different types of resources possessed by a small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME), in conjunction with the environmental uncertainty perceived by the SME's managers, affect SME's alliance formation.

Personal interview method was used to collect responses to a survey instrument from Indian SMEs. Logistic regression technique was used to analyze the responses obtained from 127 manufacturing enterprises.

The study finds that while both tangible and intangible resources possessed by an enterprise positively influence the enterprise's alliance formation, the influence of intangible resources is significantly stronger. The authors also observed the interactive effect between each resource type and environmental uncertainty to be a significant predictor of alliance formation.

The study does not account for temporal effects such as changes in resources and perceived environmental uncertainty, which may affect alliance formation. Similarly, because the data were obtained from a geographically restricted sample, replication of the study in other geographies may be necessary for generalizing the results.

The paper responds to the call for research to link firm resources and perceived environmental uncertainty toward explaining alliance formation by SMEs. The study went beyond making a distinction between the two types of resources by explicating how the interaction of resource type and environmental uncertainty will affect alliance formation.

Challenges the idea of an unconditional and positive influence of knowledge on performance without regard to environmental uncertainty. Focuses on applied process knowledge spanning the supply chain (i.e. considers supplier, internal, and customer sources). A survey of 208 manufacturing firms found the association between applied process knowledge and firm market performance is positive and statistically significant when demand unpredictability is high (but not when low); statistically significant when product churning (uncertainty) is high (but not when low); and not moderated by core production or logistics process change. Firm size and production technology were also controlled. Firms that can determine the moderating effect of the different types of environmental uncertainty they face upon their knowledge‐performance relationship will perform better in terms of market performance indicators.

This study investigates the usage of modern management accounting techniques popularly referred to as “strategic management accounting” (SMA), and the extent to which innovation attributes (namely relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability) determine SMA usage intensity.

Survey data was obtained through a structured questionnaire from 45 out of 56 publicly listed manufacturing companies on the Mainboard of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were used to analyse data.

Whereas the overall usage rate of SMA as an innovation is generally moderate, there is significant difference in SMA usage intensity across industries in the manufacturing sector due to environmental uncertainty. Compatibility emerged as the strongest determinant of SMA usage intensity, implying that commercial enterprises would intensely apply SMA to remain innovative, to continuously improve and to incorporate strategy in accounting practice in a bid to survive competition. SMA will witness extensive usage if it aligns with the competitive strategies of an organisation.

The attributes of innovation measured treat all SMA techniques as one, but did not measure relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability for each of the techniques. Future studies may consider investigating how innovation attributes specifically affect each SMA technique. The dimension of compatibility investigated in the study lean towards the alignment of SMA with competitive strategies. Taking into account the multidimensionality of compatibility as an innovation attribute, future studies may examine how past experience of implementing new ideas, as well as compatibility of SMA with corporate culture and value system, affect the dissemination and diffusion of management accounting innovations.

The paper proposes that although innovation attributes may partly explain SMA usage, coercive factors such as competition and environmental uncertainty may also be responsible for the decision to adopt innovative management accounting practices. The study therefore calls for a critical appraisal of how coercive institutional factors such as competition, regulation and actions of key stakeholders influence the decision of organisations to adopt an innovation.

This paper contributes to knowledge by challenging existing knowledge and presenting evidence that innovation attributes acclaimed to determine the spread of an innovation may be inapplicable in certain settings due to some environmental challenges. The study also contributes to knowledge by developing a composite scale for measuring innovation attributes specifically adapted to management accounting innovation, which can be used in future studies.