While the tenet that managers have limited cognitive capacity is taken-for-granted in strategic cognition research, the possibility that managers use it in more variable ways has been largely ignored. Integrating cognitive load and human-technology interaction literatures, we develop the concept of cognitive capacity management, defined as the ability to mobilize digital technologies to afford effective cognitive capacity use (hence, capacity affordances), and theorize its impact on decision quality as it can increase the comprehensiveness of the manager’s decision process. We apply our arguments to managers’ use of immersive technology. We identify four different classes of capacity affordances that are associated with the two forms of cognitive capacity management and consider their implications for the quality of managers’ strategic decisions. By developing novel theory on managers’ cognitive capacity and its management in the digital age, we seek to contribute to the literatures on strategic cognition, human-technology interaction and managerial decision-making.
