The Role of Environmental Determinism on Strategic Decision Making Process

The main goal of this paper is to examine the effects of environmental factors -environmental dynamism, environmental uncertainty, and environmental hostility- and external control on the strategic decision-making process (SDMP) characteristics ? rationality, comprehensiveness, formalization, hierarchical centralization, behavioral integration, political behavior and intuition and to test these effects with a comprehensive model in Turkey?s State and Private Hospitals. As the results of analyses, environmental dynamism affects positively rational SDMP most (25,8%) controlling hospital size and age. According to the results of analyses, environmental uncertainty affects positively hierarchical centralized SDMP most (31,2%) controlling hospital size and age. In addition, environmental uncertainty affects positively intuition in SDMP (31,5%). Results also show that environmental dynamism has negative effect on political behavior (4,9%) whereas environmental uncertainty has negative effect on political behavior (6,9%). Furthermore, from the results of the analyses it is seen that environmental hostility have positive effects on rational (12%), comprehensive (15,7%), formalized (32%), and hierarchical centralized (33,8%) SDMP controlling hospital size and age. Also, environmental hostility has positive effect on intuition in SDMP (20,9%) controlling hospital size and age. Results show that external control has no effect on any SDMP characteristics against long odds. This study?s theoretical contribution is examination of effects of environmental factors and external control on SDMP characteristics in a comprehensive model; proposing all these variables coming from different perspectives in the model and filling this gap in the research. Furthermore, this study?s practical contribution is there is lack of research that consists of stated variables in our model conducted in Turkey?s State and Private Hospitals. And finally, the methodological contribution of this study is investigation of predictors of SDMP in the context of environmental determinism perspective in Turkey, a developing country; it shows the external validity of environmental factors influence on SDMP characteristics which were tested in Western developed countries.