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The effect of uncertainty on the formulation of strategies: a study of selected Indian organizations

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Abstract

An organization’s performance is often claimed to be associated with the business environment, as well as with the organization’s strategic response to such an environment. If the environment of an organization is adverse, it may face challenges in getting its required inputs, and in adding value to the society. The objective of the present study is to propose a measure of uncertainty based on a survey of executives from randomly selected companies and present several implications for practice and theory. The present research follows a multi-stage sampling process. In the first stage, a complete list of sectors was taken from CMIE, and four sectors were randomly selected (simple random sampling) from the list. The selected sectors are as follows: chemical, petro-chemical industry, agricultural-related industry, and food processing industry. The second stage was also a simple random sampling process. The third stage was a sort of convenience sampling since the top management of the selected organizations proposed the names of the executives to be surveyed. A firm’s performance seems to be associated to the business environment, as well as, the organization’s strategic response to such an environment. There exists a dynamic relationship between a firm and its business environment. Several limitations and future courses of studies are also presented.

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Funding

The authors clearly state that study did not receive any funding from any agency/institute/ university to conduct the research work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, Techno India Group, DN 25, Sector V, Salt Lake, Kolkata, West Bengal, 700 091, India

    Amit Kundu

  2. PepsiCo India, 4A, Akash Tower, 781 Anandapur, Kolkata, West Bengal, 700 107, India

    Dev Narayan Sarkar

  3. Department of Business Management, University of Calcutta, 1, Reformatory Street, Kolkata, West Bengal, 700 027, India

    Arabinda Bhattacharya

Authors
  1. Amit Kundu
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Correspondence to Amit Kundu.

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Conflict of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Appendix 1

Appendix 1

Descriptive statistics of the sampled firms.

S. No.

Select organizations

Establishment year

Age of company (in 2019)

Annual revenue 2018–2019

Employees (2019)

Net profit (earnings)

1

Indian Oil Corporation Limited [IOCL]

1959

60

6.06 lakh crores INR

33,498

INR 19,106 crore

2

Bisk Farm Ltd.

2000

19

700 crores INR

3500

INR 50 crore

3

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited [HPCL]

1974

45

2.99 lakh crores INR

10,352

INR 6690 crore

4

Bayer Crop Science

1863

156

€43.545 billion

103,824

€4.091 billion

5

Berger Paints

1923

96

5165.73 crore INR

33,500

INR 460.83 crore

6

Amara Raja

1985

34

6839.46 crore INR

15,750

INR 483.49 crore

7

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited [BPCL]

1952

67

342,916 crore INR

12,157

INR 8527 crore

8

Syngenta India Limited

2000

19

US $12.64 billion

27,600

US $54 million

9

Tata Chemicals Pvt. Ltd.

1938

81

14,539 crore INR

2763

INR 2433 crore

10

EMAMI

1974

45

2829 crore INR

25,000

INR 400.05 crore

11

Godrej Consumers Products Ltd.

2001

18

3793 crore INR

1200

INR 48.1 crore

12

United Breweries Ltd. [UBL]

1857

162

6504.13 crores INR

50,000

INR 1137.76 crore

13

United Spirits Ltd. [USL]

1826

193

9090.90 crores INR

3200

INR 1506.10 crore

14

United Phosphorous Ltd. [UPL]

1969

50

35,756 crore INR

7435

INR 2718 crore

15

ITC Limited

1910

109

52,035 crore INR

27,279

INR 12,824 crore

16

Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd. [Haldia PL]

1985

34

500 crore INR

3200

INR 102.4 crore

17

IFFCO

1967

52

20,788 crores INR

6723

INR 841 crore

18

Indofill

1962

57

1626.46 crores INR

3200

INR 163.29 crore

  1. Lakh is a hundred thousand; crore is ten million

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Kundu, A., Sarkar, D.N. & Bhattacharya, A. The effect of uncertainty on the formulation of strategies: a study of selected Indian organizations. SN Bus Econ 1, 7 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43546-020-00010-z

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