3.4. Environmental scanning
Environmental scanning can be defined as the acquisition and use of information about events, trends, and
relationships in an organization's external environment, the knowledge of which would assist management in
planning the organization's future course of action [29]. Organization still neglect external information. Yet, it
remains crucial to take strategic decisions. So, it is important to develop systems which can look for external
information that can be used to help organization. For instance, historical costs has usefulness, but they are
insufficient for the evaluation of business decisions. The centre of attention of conventional accounting on the
stewardship function of accounting is important but should not be its only focus [30]. Another cost
perspective is the current cost. It corresponds to the price that must be paid for an asset or its use at the date of
the balance sheet or the date of the use. Some scholars are inclined to combine historical and current methods.
Although hard to implement, current cost accounting gains with environmental scanning.
The environmental scanning helps to build a more complete view. Its capabilities support strategic analysis
process by enriching the knowledge about important external aspects. It also allows benchmarking by gaining
more understanding about the market and competitors. Moreover, some external information, like current or
future prices of products or interest rates, may help to predict tendencies or identify and manage some risks