Cognition and Strategy

Abstract

A cognitive perspective on strategy suggests that managers’ interpretations of the environment shape strategic choices and, therefore, organizational action. This perspective has developed over the past 25 years through various phases, first establishing cognition as a legitimate factor in strategic management (alongside the traditional explanations of capabilities and incentives), second elucidating the causal relationship between cognition and strategic outcomes, and, recently, developing more complex models of the dynamic relationships between cognition, capabilities and incentives. The latest work expands from the firm level of analysis down to the psychological foundations of strategy and up to the impact of interpretive processes at the field level.

This entry was originally published on Palgrave Connect under ISBN 978-1-137-49190-9. The content has not been changed.