Environmental Scanning in Tunisian Manufacturing SMEs

This longitudinal study investigates the success and failure factors of the initiation of a strategic change effort in a panel of 17 manufacturing SMEs in Tunisia. A Baiting Environmental Attention Process (B.E.A.PRO) was developed and used to help managers make sense of weak signals in their relevant environment and how these signals could impact decision-making under conditions of uncertainty and ambiguity. The study shows that B.E.A.PRO might be an effective tactic for triggering a collective learning process, leading Tunisian SMEs to question their existing way of seeing the environment. The study also showed that a successful baiting process could not continue when the expert and the knowledge facilitator leaves. As usual, companies that believe they can rely on their own human resources, without creating the environment that will encourage them to stay, will likely fail.