Innovation system foresight

Allan Andersen and Per Dannemand Andersen

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2014, vol. 88, issue C, 276-286

Abstract: The practice and concept of foresight have developed over several decades. However, the academic literature that addresses foresight is mainly descriptive, and it is generally acknowledged that there is a gap between practice and theory in foresight. This article contributes to building the theoretical underpinnings of foresight. The article explores the co-evolution of the academic field of innovation studies and the practice and concept of foresight. The article illustrates that foresight is importing the dominant understanding of innovation from innovation studies with a time lag. Currently, foresight is in a catching-up process vis-à-vis innovation studies by gradually incorporating the implications of a systemic understanding of innovation. The latter is reflected in the current research gaps in foresight. This paper concludes that the concept of innovation system foresight (ISF) constitutes an improved integration of the contemporary understanding of innovation into foresight. Furthermore, the article explores four preliminary implications of ISF on the conceptual design of foresight, including the goal of foresight, system definition and boundary setting, participation of actors, and finally, methods for mapping the present. These four implications also constitute avenues for further research.

Keywords: Foresight; Innovation systems; Theoretical underpinnings; Systemic approach; Conceptual review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (32)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162514002169
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:88:y:2014:i:c:p:276-286

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2014.06.016

Access Statistics for this article

Technological Forecasting and Social Change is currently edited by Fred Phillips

More articles in Technological Forecasting and Social Change from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().