ABSTRACT
This revised and updated introduction to the Public Management Review special issue on strategic planning 2 has four main parts. First comes a discussion of what makes public-sector strategic planning strategic. This discussion is meant to reduce confusion about what strategic planning is and is not. Next, we draw attention to the distinction between strategic planning, strategy, strategic management, and the larger, more ubiquitous concept of strategizing. Strategic planning is one approach to strategizing; strategy is in part a consequence of strategizing; and strategic management is an approach to integrating strategic planning and implementation. Third, we introduce in detail the five articles in the special issue and note their unique contributions to strategic planning research. Fourth, we provide a broad assessment of the current state of strategic planning research organized in terms of prominent themes in the literature and our assessment of how the articles address voids related to the themes. The themes are: How should strategic planning be conceptualized and defined? How should it be studied? How does strategic planning work, or not? What issues of alignment are relevant to strategic planning? What are the outcomes of strategic planning? What contributes to strategic planning success? Finally, we offer conclusions and an agenda for future research.
