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Although there have been several leadership studies from various perspectives, the construct of the leader's cognitive flexibility remains partly implicit and partly unspecified. This paper attempts to develop the 'cognitive flexibility' construct based on implicit statements elicited from broad frameworks on leadership and culture discussed in the literature. The paper also takes into account related knowledge from several fields, including cognitive science, communication science, psychology and brain science, as well as complex adaptive systems. The main contribution of this research is the development of a comprehensive construct of the leader's cognitive flexibility'. Keywords: Leadership, Strategic change, Communication, Framing, Managerial and organizational culture, Cognitive flexibility, INTRODUCTION The objective of this paper is to develop the multiple dimensions of the construct of a leader's cognitive flexibility. Some of the dimensions are implicit in the traditional leadership [...]

The perceived value and extent of practical adoption of scenario planning has fluctuated considerably over the last 40 years. This research looks at the key assumptions behind scenario planning methods. Five propositions are offered and discussed regarding the validity of scenario planning's various claims to relevancy. Based on the critical analysis, guidelines are offered for improving the development of the scenario planning process to enhance the likelihood of its potential contributions to competitive advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we develop a model that we believe explains certain aspects of entrepreneurial activities. It examines the role of environmental uncertainty and its impact on strategic marketing activities, and how strategic marketing activities drive relationship building. Relationship building is conceptualized as a two-dimensional construct with one dimension addressing relationships with internal constituents, mainly employees; and the second dimension that focuses on external constituents like suppliers and customers. A combination of strategic marketing activities and relationships creates a firm's strategic orientation, and we study the impact of these constructs on a firm's financial performance. This research tests the various hypothesized relationships by developing and testing a path model. A representative sample of 152 small firms is used to test the research model and the associated hypothesized path relationships. Environmental uncertainty, strategic marketing activities, and strategic orientation significantly affect a firm's financial performance and explain about 31% of the variance. Strategic orientation is impacted by two dimensions of relationship building and by strategic marketing activities, and these three variables explain 43% of the variance. The results of the empirical analysis indicate overall support for the research model. The conclusion section of the paper addresses limitations of this research, and discusses implications and directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]