Reflections on the interplay between cognition, action and outcomes in industries and business markets: What have we learned so far and where might we go next?

• Evaluates progress re: the fundamental problem of competitor definition from a cognitive standpoint
• The world has become a very different place, rendering the need for progress all the more urgent
• New tools more effective than those available presently for intervening in strategy-making are required
• Developments in the cognitive and affective sciences are paving the way for the advances required

This essay traces the genesis and evolution of research pertaining to the interplay between cognition, action, and outcomes in industries and business markets and offers suggestions for the advancement of theory, research, and practice. Through a process of autobiographical self-reflection, covering the period from the mid-1980s–present, the author offers his views on developments and progress, first at a philosophical level, and then in terms of theory development and empirical advances, the development and application of methods for mapping actors' representations of strategic knowledge, and what this body of work has contributed and might contribute, going forward, to the design and evaluation of intervention tools and practices to aid strategic adaptation.