Providing a framework for the acquisition of experts' tacit knowledge in order to identify environmental opportunities and threats

A significant competitive advantage for organizations is the ability to recognize and capture the tacit knowledge of experts in the conventional practice of environmental scanning. The purpose of this study is to provide a framework that can be used with the help of expert tacit knowledge to identify organizational opportunities and threats. Therefore, the present study is based on the content analysis and interpretive approach to this issue. For this purpose, in-depth interviews with experts are conducted until the theoretical saturation is reached to identify SWOT defects. Therefore, 21 codes were obtained as SWOT defects using interview analysis, which is categorized with an open approach and then with a pivotal method (content analysis). Then, in-depth interviews are conducted with experts to provide solutions and tools to eliminate and prevent the identified shortcoming of current models, finally, with interpretive analysis of the interviews, a framework for acquiring the tacit knowledge of experts is provided. The actions in this framework consist of three stages: pre-interview, interview and post-interview. The proposed framework introduces solutions and tools to realize the expert tacit knowledge and identify the external environment at each phase. Therefore, the tacit knowledge of experts can be achieved to identify opportunities and threats by appliying the proposed framework. The proposed framework of the present study can be considered by organizational planners to provide better scanning of the environment.