Role of strategic planning behaviour in highly uncertain environment : evidence from the Singapore Automotive Sector

Abstract

The research paper sets out to understand how the perceived strategic uncertainty of the environment and the size of a firm affect the level of formality of planning within the Singapore automotive industry. The Singapore automotive industry is found to be operating in a highly uncertain environment, which makes it an ideal chosen industry for the purpose of our research within the time frame from 2004-2010.

A survey was conducted on both the large and small automotive firms . This survey was administered in person. A total of 74 firms were approached and these firms form a representative sample based upon the population of the automotive firms in Singapore.

The findings of this paper show that more perceived strategic uncertainty would result in a decrease in the formality of planning in both large and small automotive firms. Furthermore, this study has found that the size of a firm does contribute to the formality of planning, with large firms having a more elaborate planning process compared to small firms.

Through the process of this research, there is a greater insight gained into how firms will plan in view of strategic environmental uncertainty.