Teaching Technology Foresight to Business and Management Students

Abstract

Predicting the future is an important, yet highly difficult management task. Disruptive technologies create new ways of working, shopping, and consuming, offering both risk and opportunity. Leading experts struggle to make accurate predictions about which technology will become ubiquitous, and which will face obscurity. However, 82% of jobs require digital skills, and while the current skillset is known, future requirements are unknown. Therefore, developing the ability of students to understand and capitalise on technology change is a problematic, but worthwhile endeavour.Technology foresight, sometimes called road-mapping is the process of looking at current trends and identifying how a new technology might impact a country, industry, market, or firm, should the future application and posited benefits be realised. This is problematic becausecontrary to other forms of forecasting in which ex post forecasts can be compared to eventsthe dynamic nature of technology means that comparison is extremely difficult. This paper reports on the design and delivery of a module called Trends in Technology, to third year undergraduate Marketing students at a UK University. Hitherto, there would appear not to be an academic model to support teaching technology foresight. Therefore, through synthesis of literature of technology foresight and pedagogy with regard to design thinking, a process was developed that could be taught. Design thinking was selected because it is particularly useful when a solution cannot be judged in absolute terms and where user or customer perceptions of the same solution may differ based on a wide range of heuristics, which may be unknown to the designer.Students reported that a design thinking approach to technology application enabled them to relate to it and how it may impact their everyday lives. This fostered engagement. Furthermore, the potential career impact was recognised, with, for example, assessment artefacts being used as evidence to support job applications and interviews. Contributions include presentation of a process for teaching technology foresight and a theoretical model that explains how technology foresight can be applied to marketing theory to create both firm and consumer value.