Developing an environmental scanning process in the hotel sector

Investigates the environmental scanning activities of hotel chains operating in Portugal. Attitudes towards environmental scanning by companies where strategy was formalised through a formal written strategic plan (Intenders) and those companies where strategy was informally developed through a “vision” or “informal plan” (Realizers) were compared. Face to face interviews were conducted with board level executives to identify and assess the relevance of a formal environmental scanning process, the characteristics of such a process, barriers to its development and ways to overcome them. A cognitive mapping technique was used in the analysis of respondents’ perceptions towards the development of such a process, with the maps showing more similarities than differences between the comparison groups, thus highlighting the importance of this process for both intenders and realizes.