Int. J. Foresight and Innovation Policy, Vol. 13, Nos. 1/2, 2018 57 Copyright © 2018 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Revisiting complexity theory to achieve strategic intelligence Gianpaolo Basile* Faculty of Economics, Universitas Mercatorum, Rome (RM), Italy Email: basilegianpaolo@gmail.com *Corresponding author Hans Rüdiger Kaufmann University of Applied Management Sciences, Mannheim, Germany Email: hans-ruediger.kaufmann@hdwm.org Marco Savastano Faculty of Economics, La Sapienza University, Rome (RM), Italy Email: marco.savastano@uniroma1.it Abstract: The present work aims to analyse the choice of strategic management conditions considering both, systemic and complexity perspectives applied by analogy to business. The approach represents the firm as a complex adaptive system, where management, to make strategic and operative decisions, must reduce complexity amplifying information variety. According to this approach the firm, in a turbulent environment, must develop different competences, especially in the field of innovation, in order to achieve survival/ dynamic conditions through the creation and/or maintenance of relationships with numerous, diverse and heterogeneous stakeholders. This work aims to answer the following research questions: can the complexity theory meet the needs of managers and marketers as well as scholars’ theoretical foundations, to develop strategic intelligence to effectively manage the dynamism of organisations/brand in turbulent environments; does regarding organisations and networks as adaptive systems help scholars and managers in their decision making processes? Keywords: complexity; dynamic decision making; problem solving; information variety; complexity theory; environmental dynamism. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Basile, G., Kaufmann, H.R. and Savastano, M. (2018) ‘Revisiting complexity theory to achieve strategic intelligence’, Int. J. Foresight and Innovation Policy, Vol. 13, Nos. 1/2, pp.57–70. Biographical notes: Gianpaolo Basile got his PhD in Communication Science in University of Salerno (Italy). He teaches Destination Management in Universitas Mercatorum (Italy), from 2005 he taught marketing and place