providing a model for strategic thinking in the iran’s health industry

Background: today, despite the complex environment of businesses, the development of strategic thinking has become one of the important factors in gaining a sustainable competitive advantage in organizations; so that its application by managers leads to increased organizational performance and improved competitive conditions.objectives: this investigation focused on determining the strategic cognition model used in iran’s health industry.methods: this study adopts a mixed-methods (qualitative-quantitative) approach with an applied research objective. the target population includes all health industry experts in iran. the research process began with a comprehensive literature review, followed by in-depth interviews with 17 seasoned professionals to qualitatively identify and validate the key drivers of strategic thinking in iran’s healthcare sector. subsequently, a quantitative phase was implemented, during which expert surveys were used to construct the structural selfinteraction matrix (ssim). following the interpretive structural modeling (ism) methodology, the initial and final reachability matrices were derived, enabling the classification of research components and the development of the structural model. additionally, micmac analysis was performed to evaluate variable dependence and penetration.results: all the components and codes of this research are summarized within the framework of four main factors: obstacles, national infrastructures, scientific insight, and foresight. after obtaining these results, and in order to quantitatively verify and achieve the structuralinterpretive model, the main components of the research were tested using the structural-interpretive modeling method, and finally, the final model of the research was extracted.conclusions: it is suggested that managers and all trustees of the health industry analyze the competitive and political-legal environment of their industry and organization as a first step. using trend analysis and maintaining a forward-looking vision can help managers better understand the future environment.