Environmental scanning in dynamic contexts: information seeking and use by bank managers

Abstract

Over the last five decades of the 20th century, the information technologies evolution has completely transformed the processes of data access, storage and retrieval. The impacts of the new technologies and the implications of the shift towards an information-based economy change the way companies deal with their external environment. In Brazil, the financial sector – banking, mainly – was one of the most affected, which has changed radically the way managers scans the external environment. This paper explores this context in a survey with 65 bank managers in Belo Horizonte, State of Minas Gerais, highlighting the way they seek and use information.