Strategic planning as part of the strategic management process is applied as a central step in the overall corporate planning process. Strategic planning for virtual organisations (VOs) especially for virtual organisations breeding environments (VBEs) has not been the focus of researched up to date, but seems to be important not only for the participating enterprises, but for the network itself. Scenario techniques are a powerful tool in the domain of strategic planning. For the generation of scenarios, very often simulation models are applied by varying input parameters. One proven simulation method to generate scenarios is the cross-impact analysis method. Serious gaming is another approach to evaluate strategies. In this approach, a virtual business environment (the game itself) allows the implementation of strategic decisions and their evaluation afterwards. Such an environment also allows the user to rewind the time and to implement another strategic option. Therefore, the user is playing with the options within his manoeuvring space and evaluating effectiveness and efficiency at the same time. Such a virtual business environment also needs an underlying simulation model. This paper presents an example how a cross-impact model can be used as a core engine for a serious game. The model includes the main strategic factors from the point of view from the VBE divided into internal and external factors and their inter-relationships. Initial experiments have been done by translating the model into a causal crossimpact simulation system.
