This paper explores the relationship between corporate foresight and the capability of the organization to respond successfully to external changes (i.e., strategic agility). More generally, we investigate the value that firms, facing growing uncertainty because of the fast pace of external changes, create through foresight. We base our analysis on three different research streams: the first one is literature on environmental uncertainty; the second one is literature on strategic planning and first mover (dis)advantages; the third one is literature on organizational learning and organizational memories. We thus focus on two fundamental questions which characterize the interaction between turbulent environments, foresight and long-term performances: what kind of knowledge should organizations achieve in order to sustain their competitive edge? Under what conditions can this knowledge enhance strategic agility?
Purpose
– The main purpose of this paper is to address a key issue in literature on management and foresight: the author explores how firms might cope with the increased turbulence of the business environment.
Design/methodology/approach
– This paper is based on a multiple case study of major firms of the energy and the mobile communication industries.
Findings
– The focus is on strategic foresight and organizational flexibility: the author introduces the concept of “boundary uncertainty” and investigates its managerial implications.
Originality/value
– The main contribution of this paper is to expand our understanding of environmental uncertainty and to reinvigorate the study of strategic decision making in turbulent industries. The author provides descriptive data on the foresight approaches that some of the world’s largest and most influential companies used throughout the 2000s for remaining aligned with their fast-paced environments, and thus informs the debate between the “planning” and the “learning” schools of strategic management.
Public procurement can be a major source of innovation. The potential benefits of public procurement might be fully exploited through the acquisition not only of appliances which are already available in the market, but also of new appliances which are tailored to the specific needs of the local community and might be exported as well to the international markets. In this way, public procurement might allow to improve the services delivered to the local community and to increase the technological competitiveness of the local industrial and research system. In this context, regional foresight might help identify both long-term societal needs and the patterns of evolution of emerging technologies that can match these needs. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate, trough the recent experience of the regional government of Lombardy, the role of foresight for enhancing public procurement and innovation policy at the regional level.
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