ABSTRACT
Corporate foresight (CF) is the study of weak signals, of discontinuities in the environment and of emerging markets, for strategy and innovation policies. It focuses on how companies can identify weak signals, collect information from the "periphery", anticipate emerging markets and trends and manage innovation, in order to prepare for an uncertain future. To ensure focus on innovation and on the markets of tomorrow, companies must adopt a peculiar research and development (R&D) organization, and must absolutely support processes such as foresight. R&D is one of the means by which organizations increase their knowledge capital and use it to innovate. In most Italian companies, the two functions of Research and Development are performed within the same organizational unit. CF can be seen as a function supporting research: foresight focuses on the long term, and can empower research by anticipating trends and generating new business ideas.
