ABSTRACT

The process of corporate foresight (CF) is not limited to technological investigation. Besides analyzing future technologies, companies also look to the future in terms of economic policy, legislation, behavior of consumers and competitors, and so on. Technology foresight is a systematic process which supports decision-making by identifying future technological and scientific developments. Political environment foresight observes the trends and changes occurring in politics, laws and regulations. Consumer foresight gathers information on actual and potential customers and tries to identify their emerging needs. The foresight process is critical for the quality of results. The purpose of CF is to assist decision-making through methods that allow anticipating risks and opportunities. Technological monitoring is used to observe a specific technology or an area of interest on an ongoing basis, trying to identify developments that may affect the future. Modeling techniques are used to build models that represent in a simple way the structure and organization of a part of the real world.