Purpose: The purpose of this study is to assess how managed care has changed the way in which top-level managers (owners, chief executive officers) of private physical therapy practices engage in the strategic planning process of environmental scanning. Subjects: Licensed physical therapists who are members of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) and belong to the private practice section. Method: Questionnaire was mailed to 1000 licensed physical therapists throughout the United States who were members of the APTA and the private practice section. Results: Statistical analysis using MANOCA revealed no significant interaction effect between the two independent variables: level of entrepreneurship and existing regulatory environment (F=1.27, p=.230). This indicates that an individual's existing regulatory environment and level of entrepreneurship may not jointly affect an individual's environmental-scanning behavior. The independent variable of existing regulatory environment was not found to be significant (F=1.80, p=.099). This suggest that an individual's existing regulatory environment may not affect the way one's practice makes their business decisions. The independent variable level of entrepreneurship was found significant (F=7.51, p Conclusion: Most business have not changed the way they scan the environment. This could explain why so many of these practices are selling to large companies or just closing.
| Date of Award | Jan 1 1998 |
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| Original language | English |
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