Environmental Scanning and Business Insight Capability: _x000D_ The Role of Business Analytics and Knowledge Integration

Environmental scanning is an important process that helps organizations sense what is happening in their environments. However, environmental scanning has been found to be less effective than its proponents had hoped for. The problem appears to be that environmental scanning does not lead to the business insights that managers need to help their organizations survive and grow. This paper reports a study into the role of data analytics and knowledge management on environmental scanning and business insight capability. Fifteen indepth interviews were conducted with data analytics professionals to get a deeper understanding of how what they did impacted the results of environmental scanning processes and the generation of business insights. The results indicate data analytics and knowledge management need to play a bigger role in the environmental scanning process if greater business insights are to be generated.