Chronotope Space: managing the complex trade‐offs between the properties of the strategic landscape and the time frame being considered

Abstract

Purpose

This article seeks to emphasize the importance of two elements; the nature of the strategic landscape and time, which are often neglected in foresight and strategic management by putting them in a form that makes them the basis for twenty‐first century strategic management.

Design/methodology/approach

The multi‐ontology approach states that the properties of strategic landscapes vary from linear to complex and even to disruptive, and that the dynamics of action in each of them is different. Consequently, when analyzing strategic landscapes, variations between them should be distinguished and different tools and methods applied accordingly.

Findings

An added sensitivity to socially and situationally constructed worlds allows for new tactical and strategic possibilities.

Research limitations/implications

This article is not a concluding chapter, rather an opening one that points the way for a number of necessary further developments.

Practical implications

The article suggests that more contextually constructed approaches with respect to strategic landscapes and time are required; and that when applied they will lead to more appropriate and more effective outcomes in both sense‐making and decision‐making.

Originality/value

The article's concept of chronotope space enables us to dissect the complex tradeoffs between the properties of strategic landscape and the time frame at stake.

Citation

Aaltonen, M. (2007), "Chronotope Space: managing the complex trade‐offs between the properties of the strategic landscape and the time frame being considered", Foresight, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 58-62. https://doi.org/10.1108/14636680710773830