Determining marketing strategy: A cybernetic systems approach to scenario planning

Despite the vast proliferation of conceptual, theoretical, and empirical studies in adaptation-selection research, debate continues to surround a key question: how do firms strategically coevolve with their environments? This paper attempts to address part of this question by drawing on advances in strategic choice theory and resource-advantage theory. A scenario-based group methodology based around the “think tank” described in the first paper of this special issue is presented whereby marketing analyses of environmental contexts are described which lead to a series of recommended marketing strategies for response (selection), which fit the changing environments (adaptation). Various conclusions are derived from this marketing strategy determination process and finally, consideration is given to issues of complexity and chaos in environmental assessment terms