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The concept of a mental model has been described by theorists from diverse disciplines. The purpose of this paper is to offer a robust definition of an individual mental model for use in organisational management.

The approach adopted involves an interdisciplinary literature review of disciplines, including system dynamics, psychology, cognitive science and organisational learning.

Critical reflection on the published individual mental model definitions revealed similarities and shortcomings. It is argued that here the literature presents some consensus in the concept being internally held and having the capacity to affect how a person acts. The proposed definition of an individual mental model was found to be robust through a complexity based inquiry conducted in an organisation within the hospitality industry.

The application of the model has only been tested in one case study with a small staff sample in the hospitality industry. Thus generalisation is limited pending further testing.

The pilot study demonstrated the usefulness of the definition of an individual mental model in making the conceptualisations of work practices explicit at various levels within organisations.

This paper produces a definition that is lucid, inclusive, and specific for mental model research and knowledge management in organisations. The paper provides added value for academics and organisational practitioners interested in a robust definition for understanding the concept and the implications of mental models on an individual's actions.

The three preceding articles highlight the ongoing research designed to better understand shared mental models and their role in team functioning. In some respects, research scholars have achieved an integrated view (a.k.a. shared mental models) about the field (e.g., the growing body of empirical research results underscores the important role of the shared mental model construct in effective team functioning). In other respects, our mental models have not converged. Thus, we still need additional conceptual and empirical research to advance the field (e.g., many dimensions of mental models have been identified, but no agreement exists about their validity or the completeness of the list). In this response, I use the similar, divergent, and complementary views presented in the trio of articles by myself, Cannon-Bowers (this volume), and Rentsch and Small (this volume) to demonstrate how the process of scholarship is analogous to the mental model convergence process.

The purpose of this paper is to find the new analysis method of virtual team effectiveness in team building, as well as various HR tools.

This paper investigated 62 virtual teams, distinguished between identified mental models and distributed mental models, tested the relation among team characteristics, and shared mental models and virtual team effectiveness using hierarchical linear modeling.

Results demonstrated that time would enhance the effect of shared mental models on task effectiveness; virtual team size would affect the relation between shared mental model and cooperative effectiveness, team size could enhance the effect of identified mental model on cooperative effectiveness, but weaken the relation between distributed mental model and cooperative effectiveness. A need is found for application of hierarchical linear modeling of shared mental model on virtual team effectiveness.

Accessibility and availability of data are the main limitations which apply.

This paper presents a new approach of optimal choice of virtual team building. The paper is aimed at HR and psychological researches and managers, especially those who dealt with people, and provides very useful advice for team management in enterprises.

Mental model convergence occurs as team members interact. By collecting information and observing behaviors through their interactions, team members’ individual mental models evolve into shared mental models. This process requires a cognitive shift in an individual's focal level. Specifically, the individual assigned to the team must shift his or her focus from thinking about the team domain using an individual perspective to thinking about it from a team perspective. Thus, mental model convergence may be the key to understanding how individuals are transformed into team members. This chapter presents a framework describing the mental model convergence process that draws on the extant research on group development and information processing. It also examines temporal aspects of mental model convergence, the role of mental model contents on the convergence process, and the relationship between converged mental models and team functioning. Preliminary evidence supporting the framework and the important role that converged mental models play in high-performing teams is provided. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of this mental model convergence framework for research and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to map advertising agency practitioners' mental models of creativity.

A total of 30 in-depth interviews among top-level advertising agency executives (creative, account and planning directors) were conducted. Design and data analysis followed the grounded theory paradigm of qualitative research.

Complementing earlier studies in advertising creativity, a multi-dimensional system of practitioner mental models was discovered. Substantive models depict agency professionals' core understanding of advertising creativity and its dialectical structure. Developmental models conceptualise the intrapersonal acquisition of creative skill as well as the social context in which advertising creativity is generated. Effectiveness models introduce native explanations for the market effectiveness of creativity. Interrelationships between the identified models are presented in detail.

Understanding the mental models of advertising executives enriches the literature on the production side of marketing culture.

Shared understandings of mental models between advertising agencies and client brand management teams have the promise of reducing agency-client conflict.

The study's contribution is threefold: it provides an integrated view on advertising practitioners' multifaceted mental models about creativity (an area that has received little prior research attention); it models these mental models in their dynamic interaction, going beyond previous accounts that looked at topical areas in creativity in relative isolation; it redresses an imbalance in marketing theory between the production and consumption contexts of marketplace culture formation.

The purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual framework for defensive strategy by integrating market entry modes and the typology of firms suggested by Day and Nedungandi, and to attempt to propose how local incumbent firms utilize their mental models in order to react against market entry of new competition in global markets.

The theoretical perspective adopted in the study is how mental models used by incumbent firms influence their reaction to market entry of new competition in developing defensive strategies to defend their markets.

Mental models of incumbent firms, categorized as self‐centered, competitor‐centered, customer‐oriented, and market‐driven firms, impact their reaction and the development of defensive marketing strategies against market entrants using a variety of market entry modes in global markets.

The paper presents an extensive review of the defensive marketing and mental models literature and shows how the way in which incumbent firms react to market entry of new competition contributes to understanding of incumbent reaction to market entry of new competition in global markets. Research directions for future research and managerial implications are also provided.

Marketing researchers continue to debate the significance of the managerial relevance of marketing, especially in the boardrooms. Despite a growing number of published papers on the topic, it is surprising that there are virtually none on mental models. The purpose of this paper is to discuss these issues.

The paper presents mental models as a perspective to discuss marketing's position in companies, and reflects on the marketing mental models of boardroom members and top management.

The paper addresses marketing's relevant issues and offers new insights into the role of marketing in companies by highlighting mental models, which drive the boardrooms’ and managers’ attentions, decisions, actions, and evaluations. The paper demonstrates the importance of mental models by introducing and discussing the notion of the mental footprint of marketing, or the impact marketing has on mental models.

The rapidly changing business environment, in addition to current marketing research trends, strengthens the need to understand the scope of issues included under the notion of marketing, as well as the overall significance of marketing within the company. The paper advocates that understanding and investigating mental models is useful in these endeavors.

The paper presents a set of different implications from recognized mental models in companies.

This paper contributes to discussions on the relevance of marketing in modern companies by introducing a new perspective, involving the mental footprint of marketing, which challenges functional points of view. If the mental model of marketing takes a broader approach, considering marketing to be ubiquitous, then marketing can be seen as being present in the boardroom.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the effects of scenario planning on participant mental model styles.

The scenario planning literature is consistent with claims that scenario planning can change individual mental models. These claims are supported by anecdotal evidence and stories from the practical application of scenario planning. This research study documents the responses of 129 participants from 10 organizations using the mental model style survey as a pretest and posttest, with scenario planning as the intervention. Paired samples t‐tests were performed between participant pretest and posttest, to test hypotheses on all five factors of the mental model style survey.

Results provide evidence that scenario planning can change individual mental model styles. More specifically, results show that scenario planning promotes efficiency, social, and systems mental model styles, with moderate effect sizes.

The implications of this research include contribution to the growing body of quantitative studies attempting to document the impact scenario planning has on participants. Implications for future research include the use of control groups to isolate effects of the scenario planning intervention.

The study documents one of the largest sample sizes to date in scenario planning research and makes a clear contribution in clarifying significant changes in mental model styles from pretest to posttest.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between the characteristics of strategic decision-making team’s mental model and its performance. The authors propose that the relationship between mental models and performance is two-way, rather than one-way. Thus, performance feedback should, in turn, influence strategic behavior and future performance by either triggering or hindering the learning process.

The authors conduct the research in the setting of a simulation experiment. A longitudinal data set was collected from 36 teams functioning as strategic decision makers over three periods.

This study provides support for the positive impacts of both the complexity and centrality of a team’s mental model on its performance. The authors also find that positive performance feedback reduces changes in complexity and centrality of team mental models due to cognitive inertia.

The study contributes to the literature by investigating the specific mechanisms that underlie mental model evolution. Different from the existing studies on team mental models that mainly focus on similarity of these shared cognitive structures, this study examines another two characteristics of team mental model, complexity and centrality, that are more relevant to the strategic decision-making process but has not been extensively studied in the team literature. In addition, this study reveals that performance feedback has different effects on team mental models depending on the referents – past performance or social comparison – which advances the understanding of the learning effects of performance feedback.

This article aims to examine considerations and strategies for improving team performance in decision‐making by teaching teams to use collaborative modeling based on team mental models.

The article describes the nature of shared mental models and collaborative modeling, the potential effects of collaborative modeling on team performance, and a perspective on communication imperatives that facilitate collaborative modeling. The articles builds upon this information to suggest five imperatives for teams to help them develop collaborative modeling skills

The article offers strategies in the form of five imperatives for teams to observe in order to build skills in collaborative modeling and improve team performance by improving team members’ ability to effect collaborative modeling to accomplish team tasks and goals.

Research over the years in mental modeling and communication has created a powerful argument that effective communication and shared mental models improves team performance. However there is little about application of this concept in the literature. The next step for researchers is to develop application models for collaborative modeling and test those models through empirical research. This paper offers an application model based on imperatives to be observed by decision‐making teams in order to facilitate the creation of shared mental models of team tasks and processes.