Strategic Imagination as a Research Domain

An Integrative Review and Future Agenda

Resumo

Strategic action is inherently future-oriented, yet strategy research has largely emphasized how
organizations interpret environments and make decisions based on existing information, leaving
the construction of imagined futures underexplored. This study examines how imagination has
been mobilized in the strategy literature and what this reveals about the conceptual foundations
of strategic thought. An integrative review of 31 studies published between 1994 and 2026
shows that imagination is present but fragmented and conceptually inconsistent. Across the
literature, it appears in three main forms: as a source of novelty, a metaphor for strategic vision,
and a cognitive tool for anticipation. Although these perspectives recognize its relevance, they
remain closely tied to frameworks of managerial cognition and decision-making. By
synthesizing these patterns, the article argues that imagination constitutes a latent yet
underdeveloped dimension of strategic thinking. It introduces strategic imagination as an
emerging research domain and proposes a future research agenda, particularly from a
sociocultural perspective, to examine how organizational futures are collectively imagined,
articulated, and legitimized.