Investigating the Development of Strategic Thinking and the Emerging Application of Cognitive Sciences With the Scoping Review approach

In developing countries due to the weakness of the strategic planning structure, such as privatization and readiness to join the WTO, there is a growing need for effective strategic thinking. Therefore, developing strategic thinking in managers as one of the key factors in the effectiveness of strategic management process needs more attention. The effectiveness and efficiency of thinking strategies depend on the research and pathology of research in this field. The purpose of the present study is to identify all strategic thinking development research from 1980 to 2019 in valid databases and discover the applications of cognitive science.The type of research method used is Scoping Review, which selected 207 articles based on keywords. By reviewing and refining the searched articles, 76 titles were selected for final analysis. The results of selected research indicate it has focused solely on the influence of one or more factors on the development of strategic thinking, which is generally not as effective as current science practices. Education has been cited as a general development strategy but has not specified how it should be taught. Only a limited number of cognitive sciences have paid attention on this category and merely gave a general overview of this approach. So future researchers can conduct more detailed scientific research using multiple branches of cognitive and emerging sciences in this field to enrich and deepen the development of strategic thinking.