INFORMATION SYSTEM SUPPORT FOR CORPORATE-LEVEL PLANNING IN LARGE PUBLIC MANUFACTURING COMPANIES.

摘要

This study examined the relationship between the nature of the corporate-level planning system in Fortune 1000 companies and the types of information collected to support that process. This investigation also analyzed certain situational factors, which had been identified in the literature and in a preliminary study as likely to influence a firm's planning process. These factors included organization size, diversity of operations, environmental complexity, environmental volatility, senior management involvement, and formality of the planning process.;The importance of new and different types of information to increased sophistication of the planning process received very strong support in this study. Firms conducting strategic planning gave increased attention to future-oriented, external and environmental factors.;The situational variables of size, internal and external complexity, formality of the planning process, and senior management involvement at the start of the planning process also were found to be strongly related to the sophistication of planning actually conducted.;However, the relationship of diversity of operations and environmental volatility to the planning process was unclear. Given the prominence of these concepts in the literature, further study into these relationships is necessary before a specification of the impact of the situational variables on the planning process will be complete.;In order to xamine both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of this subject, the study was designed in two phases. Initially, a field study of eight companies in the Chicago area was conducted to evaluate the premises prevalent in the literature and to gain additional insight into the relationships between planning systems, types of information, and the situational factors. The field study was followed by a questionnaire survey of 210 randomly selected Fortune 1000 companies, which produced eighty-nine usable responses.;The techniques of analysis utilized in this study identified new areas which invite further research.