The relationship between environmental uncertainty and strategic behavior in the perception of small business managers

Abstract

The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between strategic behavior and environmental uncertainty on the managers' perception. An taxonomy was used for the uncertainty construct, which explains 29 factors grouped in six clusters. The contribution of the study for the strategic behavior, whose construct was analyzed by the model that characterizes the strategies adopted by the firms in four typologies: prospectors, analysts, defensives and reactives. The study presents a quantitative, correlational descriptive and explanatory approach. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire, which was given to 203 companies of Tapejara. From that total, 53 questionnaires (26.1%) were answered. The relationship between the uncertainty and behavior constructs was analyzed by the ANOVA technique, preceded by the normality and homoscedasticity tests, in order to verify the results of the analysis. As to the uncertainty perception, 64% of the administrators notice that environment with low uncertainty. Regarding the strategic behavior, it was found that the companies adopt a prospective posture (40%). It can be concluded, concerning the relationship between uncertainty and behavior, that there wasn't significance in the results that enable to affirm that the perception of uncertainty leads to the adoption of a specific strategic behavior.