Strategic Foresight in Multinational Enterprises: Building a Best-Practice Framework from Case Studies

In many industries companies are faced with disruptions from emerging technologies, from the political and legislative environment, from alternative business models or from socio-cultural shifts. Research on strategic foresight (SF) has been aimed at investigating how companies achieve to identify, anticipate and manage disruptions and prepare for an uncertain future. The research is based on the observation that strategic management in large companies is characterized by certain ignorance towards any changes occurring outside its current business area, and that to maintain a competitive position over time a continuous scanning, interpreting and reaction to such changes need to be established.

Many studies have been able to show that establishing an SF system is judged crucial by corporate management, but that paradoxically the implementation of successful practices remains limited. This can be attributed to the limited knowledge about best practices as well as the lack of professional associations dedicated to advancing management practices in the field of SF. This study builds on a review of past studies as well as evidence from case studies in 15 companies in which 84 interviews have been conducted. As a result a framework is proposed that allows the comparison of SF practices within 5 dimensions and 19 key characteristics.