Collaborative open foresight - A new approach for inspiring discontinuous and sustainability-oriented innovations

Publication date: Available online 20 July 2018Source: Technological Forecasting and Social ChangeAuthor(s): Melanie Wiener, Regina Gattringer, Franz StrehlAbstractDisruptive changes (e.g. new technologies, services, and business models) present a variety of opportunities and risks for companies. They can contribute significantly not only to economic success but also to greater sustainability. Nevertheless, it is not a trivial task for established companies to recognize the potential of disruptive changes and to implement innovations in time. In this context, foresight and openness are proposed as promising approaches. This paper investigates the collaborative open foresight approach for inspiring discontinuous and sustainability-oriented innovations. The results of a longitudinal case study involving two companies show that the participants especially value that collaborative open foresight (1) fosters out-of-the-box thinking (2) supports breaking away from path dependency, and (3) increases the potential of innovations. Most importantly, the joint discussion and analysis of future developments (4) help to generate new insights regarding the opportunities and risks of the disruptive changes identified as well as their potential for discontinuous and sustainability-oriented innovations. It was particularly noteworthy that both companies recognized a significant value-added of collaborative open foresight compared to their previous foresight projects, so far conducted individu...

Source: Technological Forecasting and Social Change - July 20, 2018 Category: Science Source Type: research