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This paper seeks to identify the related factors of strategic thinking and their assessment (determining the gap between “importance of the factors”, and “present situation of the factors”) in Benetton Co. branches located in Iran.

The paper briefly reviews the literature related to strategic planning, and especially strategic thinking. Through the review of literature, some factors will be identified, and then presents statistical evidence to show their relevance and situation (the gap between present situation and optimum situation) in Benetton Co. branches located to Iran.

The findings of the research indicate that there are 12 relevant factors of strategic thinking; and difference between “importance of the factors”, and the present situation of all 12 factors in Benetton, are meaningful.

More research needs to be conducted about the factors related to strategic thinking. Due to the fact that the research is limited to a specific company, the findings cannot be generalized. Also, it seems that relying on questionnaire can cause some limitations to the findings.

Although strategic planning and thinking are distinct, they are interrelated and complementary in terms of thought processes. If they sustain and support each other, effective strategic planning can be formulated and implemented.

The paper provides insights to different dimensions of strategic thinking and the amount of their presence in an international company working in a developing country; and the way it enhances the capacity of the company for implementation of strategic planning.

This article is a conceptual framework and literature review on strategic thinking. It examines some of the more recent definitions and identifies a number of key elements involved. Further analysis determines a number of situations that can improve strategic thinking capability in individuals and considers whether organizations can successfully adopt its conclusions to develop their managers and improve the business. The article briefly discusses the relationship between strategic thinking, strategic planning and emergent strategy and suggests that strategic thinking needs to precede both and is essential in making them more appropriate and effective. The authors believe that the greater the sum total of strategic thinking and thinkers in the organization the more readily and effectively it can respond to and take advantage of the vast array of changes occurring in today’s business environment. However, despite the significant levels of delayering and flattening of structures that has taken place in the last decade or so, some organizational barriers continue to stifle opportunities for strategic thinking by limiting the flow of experiences and insights to relevant corners of the firm. The authors suggest that knowledge management can have a significant role in increasing and improving strategic thinking by drawing such experiences and insights from all parts of the organization and making them available to points of strategic decision and action.

Prediction of future changes and making appropriate strategic decisions require strategic thinking in any organization. It helps managers to create new opportunities. The purpose of this paper is to measure strategic thinking and its affecting factors at Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences.

This is a descriptive-analytic as well as a cross-sectional study which was conducted in 2016. Its statistical community included 300 managers and personnel of Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences. The sample size was equal to statistical community. Data were collected using a standard questionnaire. Data were then entered into SPSS20 and were analyzed using statistical tests such as Freedman, Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis.

Overall, strategic thinking was evaluated “good” and “somewhat good” among managers (5.0±72.28) and personnel (6.0±25.48), respectively. Moreover, among the elements of strategic thinking, conceptual thinking obtained the highest score among both managers (6.0±06.32) and personnel (5.0±53.52), which was evaluated in a “good” level. There was a significant difference between managers’ and personnel’s strategic thinking score (p=0.001). Different education groups of managers and personnel were different in terms of strategic thinking (p<0.05), but strategic thinking score of managers and personnel were not significant based on the work experience and type of employment.

Although both managers and personnel received a good score in terms of strategic thinking, improving the level of strategic thinking especially for future trends and opportunities can lead to enhanced strategic thinking among managers and personnel of Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences.

In an environment characterised by flux and uncertainty, a capacity for innovative, divergent strategic thinking rather than conservative, convergent strategic planning is seen as central to creating and sustaining competitive advantage. As the case study of Communications Co. illustrates, scenario planning is one tool that many organisations, committed to redesigning their strategic planning processes, are using with some success. However, scenario planning requires both left‐ and right‐brain thinking styles. The elements of left‐brain thinking reflect the planning side of strategy making, while right‐brain thinking mirrors the thinking component of strategy making. The relationship between the factors that enable strategic thinking and the level of “emotional intelligence” of business leaders is also considered. The Communications Co. case findings appear to support the view that while strategic thinking capabilities can be nurtured and diffused through an organisation, it will need business leaders with a high degree of emotional intelligence to lead the way.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of the external environment on the strategic thinking dimensions in Malaysia and Palestine on the banking sector.

This paper focuses on dynamism and complexity in political and economic external environments. This study uses qualitative methodology through a comparative case study method. Purposive sampling was used to collect data from in-depth semistructured interviews with 33 bank executives from Malaysia and 17 from Palestine.

The findings revealed that the banking sector in both Malaysia and Palestine shared five common strategic thinking dimensions, including vision, creativity, conceptual thinking, futurism and opportunity. However, a sixth dimension, intent-focused, was unique to Palestinian bank executives. This study indicates that Palestine’s financial strategic thinking environment is more dynamic and complex than Malaysia’s. Additionally, the study highlights the significant influence of both microenvironments (such as types of banks) and the macroenvironment (such as political and economic situations). These findings hold important implications for decision-makers in the banking sector of both countries.

As with many studies, this study has some limitations. First, the analysis examines only the turbulent and stable environment in the two countries by using a qualitative approach which enables the analysis of thoughts and actions and exposes the beliefs, perceptions, mental maps and structures of belief in their perceptions (Cavana et al., 2001). As such, the results are limited to a particular time, date and geographical location; thus, opinions and perceptions might be altered due to changes in the external political and economic environment. The second limitation of this work is that the case study might not be appropriate for generalization (Stake, 1978). Finally, the limited number of female participants in Palestine shows a high level of inequality compared to Malaysian participants.

This study explores the implication of uncertain environments at the national level on executives’ cognition and actions, links the micro- and macro-environment of the banking industry to a theoretical perspective and develops a conceptual circular model to show the effect of macro environments on bank performance. The findings offer practical contributions to the current literature, providing insights for executives to navigate a dynamic and complex banking industry.

This study fills the literature gap by exploring how strategic thinking dimensions triggered by macro- and micro-environments impact banking sector performance in Malaysia and Palestine.

The purpose of the article was to identify the core dimensions of strategic thinking and create a measure that provides a comprehensive operationalization of the construct.

The construct validity of the measure was assessed in two studies using four samples with a total of 985 participants. The measure was created using a multi-step process that included item development and content validation, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, convergent and discriminant validity, criterion validity and test-retest validity.

The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) supported the existence of the three dimensions of strategic thinking (visionary, synthetic and creative thinking) as conceptually proposed. The measure was reduced to nine items. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed the three dimensions and revealed acceptable factor loadings and model fit. Convergent, discriminant and criterion validity were established, and the measure demonstrated acceptable test-retest reliability.

An individual's ability to think strategically is vital for making strategic decisions and relevant to upper echelon theory and strategic management. The definition and core dimensions of strategic thinking are unclear in the literature, creating confusion. This study added to the literature by defining the core dimensions of strategic thinking and developing the strategic thinking assessment (STA) to measure the construct.

The purpose of this paper is to conduct a structured review of the literature on the factors affecting the strategic thinking of an organization. This study offers some theoretical insights by analysing the divergent or analogous views of authors on these factors by analysing the empirical studies carried out in the literature.

An empirical method of conducting a structured literature review has been adopted in this study. Theory context characteristic methodology framework and meta-analysis are the methodologies applied to analyse the different empirical studies conducted in the literature and determine the variation or similarities in the views of authors over the same factor based on their effect sizes. This study analyses over 45 different empirical studies in the literature conducted on the factors affecting strategic thinking.

This study explains how the factors have been similarly or differently explained by the authors in the literature. This analysis gives a better understanding of the factors affecting strategic thinking and quantitatively amalgamates the current empirical studies carried out in the literature. The effects sizes generated for each factor helps in determining the homogeneous or heterogeneous nature of the factor.

The study is limited only to analyse the homogeneity or heterogeneity of the factors affecting strategic thinking at an organisational level. This study can be further extended by analysing the type of effect these factors have on the strategic thinking of the organisation.

The findings of this study identify the homogeneity or heterogeneity of the factors affecting strategic thinking in an organisation. This helps the top management to concentrate on these factors, which might develop a strategic thinking nature in the organisation, leading to the better formation of strategies, and successfully implement them in their businesses.

The study fills the unattended gaps in the literature by analysing the homogeneous and heterogeneous nature of the factors affecting the strategic thinking of an organisation.

This study aims to derive a sound definition of strategic thinking by horizontal analysis of past research and discussions with professionals.

The research design includes three broad stages: item generation, scale development and assessment of scale’s psychometric properties.

The eclectic composition cuts across vocations, religions, sex and age strengthen the flexibility of application of the scale. The resulting scale shows strong psychometric properties and is expected to be useful for academics, practitioners and organizations alike.

The information on strategic thinking was self-reported through strategic thinking questionnaire (STQ) and is consequently at risk to be influenced by self-bias.

Using the scale of strategic thinking will empower strategic thinkers to draw a more extensive scope of strategies at all levels. This will additionally bring about higher-quality procedures, increased performance and greater competitive advantage.

The study represents to be an imperative predecessor to strategic decision-making and may give a key to better comprehend authoritative change marvels and at last survival.

As the sample for our STQ has been collected from all across the country cross-sectioning different culture, gender and position of responsibility, the scale has significant robustness and implicative potential.

The purpose of this study is to model the strategic thinking process, considering the different psychological traits of TMTs (top management teams) and how the technological dynamism affects the strategies framed together impacting the performance of the firm.

Modeling and simulation are done in this study using the system dynamics (SD) tool. The data are extracted using social media analytics, and the same is given as an input for the SDmodel, which is used for modeling and simulation of the interdependencies between the psychological factors, technological dynamism and firm performance. The analysis decodes how a change in the thinking process of a TMT has an impact on the performance of the company in an automobile market.

The study has explained how different psychological traits affect the thinking process of a TMT and how the strategies framed with this thinking behavior have an impact on firm performance.

The study is limited only to the automobile industry in India, and only partial psychological constructs were considered to examine their impact on firm performance. This study can be further extended by analyzing the same to various other industries along with many other psychological constructs.

The findings identify the change in behavior of the performance due to the thinking process and technological dynamism. This helps the top management to take into consideration different factors that affect the strategies framed for the company and what are the threshold points in the system that are to be focused on during the framing of a strategy.

The study fills the unattended gaps in the literature regarding how the psychological traits are interdependent and how their relationship is affecting the thinking process, which is going to have an impact on the behavior of the firm performance. It also adds to the literature of systems thinking.

The purpose of this study is to explain the interrelationships between the elements of strategic thinking, technological change and strategic risks. The main objective of this research is to identify the hierarchy for the elements of thinking, technological change and strategic risk and also to identify the driving powers of these elements.

The methodology used in this study is modified total interpretive structural modelling and MICMAC analysis which gives the interrelationships and also the driving powers of the elements by analysing the relationships between the elements from the existing literature. This method helps us in answering/understanding the “what”, “how” and “why” of the research. Modified total Interpretive structural modeling is considered in this study, which helps in doing both the paired comparisons and transitivity checks simultaneously. A digraph is constructed at the end of the analysis, which shows the links between the elements, and a driver dependence matrix is constructed, which shows the driving powers.

This study gives an understanding of the role of the elements, the relationships between them and the hierarchy of addressing these elements, and also the driving and dependence power. Findings of this research give us an understanding of how strategic thinking/technological change/strategic drives the performance of the firm.

This study is conducted with the help of existing literature; this can be further extended by considering the expert opinion.

The model explains the direct and transitive links of the elements and the strength of the relation between them, which helps the researchers and the practitioners to understand the driving power and importance of these constructs. It also helps us to understand the role of these elements and, if implemented in an organisation, which elements need to be prioritised for enhancing the performance of the firm.

Research done in the past has individually analysed the elements effecting strategic thinking; this study identifies the relationships between the elements of all three constructs and helps in understanding the levels of hierarchy.