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Organizations continuously learn about their markets through the linked processes of market sensing and sense making. Firms that have mastered these two processes gain an advantage by anticipating market opportunities ahead of their rivals and more accurately forecasting how the market will respond to their moves. Our purposes are first, to describe the primary mechanisms for acquiring market information and turning it into market knowledge; second, to assess the pitfalls and power of the mental models used by organizations to filter, sort and simplify market information into coherent patterns; and then to prescribe some ways to improve a market learning capability.

The increasing availability of Ur social indicators offers the possibility of an overall quality of life measure which can be used to compare cities. Several solutions to the problem of combining the individual indicators into an overall comparative measure are considered. The most promising results were obtained by grouping cities according to the similarity of their profiles on the social indicators, including (1) unemployment, (2) income, (3) housing, (4) health, (5) racial equality, (6) education, (7) transporation, & (8) air quality. The value of such comparisons, however, remains speculative because of serious limitations in the indicators. While a number of improvements are possible, the resulting indicators will still be adequate only for use in gross comparisons of metropolitan areas. 4 Tables, 2 Figures. Modified HA.

The central importance of the periphery -- Scoping : where to look -- Scanning : how to look -- Interpreting : what the facts mean -- Probing : looking more closely -- Acting : what to do, when, and how -- Organizing : developing vigilance -- Leading : agenda for improvement.

Facing reality in real time -- Vigilant organizations -- Managing organizational attention -- Sensing weak signals -- Tackling ambiguity -- Timely action -- Vigilance : an agenda for action -- Forewarned is forearmed: five lessons about vigilance -- Appendix A: A diagnostic tool to assess vigilance : how well does your organization see -- Sooner and act faster? -- Appendix B: About our research -- Notes -- Index.