Validating a method for mapping managers' mental models of competitive industry structures

Cognitive mapping techniques refer to methods used to elicit the structure and content of people's mental models. There is a growing interest in applying these techniques to the study of managers' mental models of strategic management issues. This paper reports on a new method for mapping managers' mental models of competitive industry structures, that is based upon recent developments in the cognitive psychology of the categorization of concepts. This method, a simple visual card sorting technique, is quick to administer and interpret. The method is evaluated with respect to its psychometric properties against the well established, but potentially cumbersome, repertory grid technique. The method is demonstrated to have good validity by comparing it with the repertory grid technique.