Futurescapes: Imagination and temporal reorganization in the design of strategic narratives

Abstract

Recent work in organizational and strategy research increasingly accords centrality to narratives in developing and legitimating future-oriented strategies. Despite this growing interest in the use of strategic narratives for prospective sensemaking and sensegiving, the design of such narratives as persuasive vehicles that shape beliefs about possible futures and firms’ potential roles in them remains undertheorized. We build on Paul Ricœur’s narrative theory to develop a theoretical framework of how firms can employ imaginative thought, in the form of productive and creative imagination, to depict plausible and desirable “possible worlds.” We term these worlds “futurescapes” and theorize how they synthesize heterogenous information through factual and fictive means to project different types of futures that have differential persuasive qualities. We argue that continuous or near futures are likely to be perceived as more plausible, whereas discontinuous or distant futures are likely to be perceived as more desirable by stakeholder audiences. We further draw on Ricœur’s ideas about narrative time to theorize how narratives are used by firms for temporal reorganization that can alter perceptions of plausibility and desirability, thereby increasing the overall persuasiveness of their futurescapes. We illustrate our arguments using narratives created by auto manufacturers in response to the changing landscape of their industry. Our ideas have implications for research on the strategic use of narratives, future-focused strategy making as temporal work, and shaping strategies under uncertainty.