The application of foresight to address the challenges of uncertainty and rapid change has grown dramatically in the past decade. In that period, the techniques have been greatly refined and the scope has been broadened to encompass future-oriented technology analysis (FTA) and more recently, the concept and practice of strategic intelligence. FTA addresses directly the longer-term future through the active and continuous development of visions, and pathways to realise these visions. It is increasingly seen as a valuable management and policy tool complementing, and extending further into the future, classical strategy, planning, and decision-making approaches. This book charts the development of FTA and provides the first coherent description and analysis of its practical application and impact in the worlds of business, government, education and research in both advanced and developing countries. It draws on papers addressing the application of FTA around the globe which were presented at the Second International Seville Seminar in September 2006. The insights and practical experience will be invaluable for company managers, government ministers and officials, researchers and academics with responsibilities for effective planning and decision-making in an increasingly turbulent and unpredictable world.

What do vehicle manufacturers like Rosenbauer, logistics companies like DB Schenker, a compressor manufacturer such as Bauer, an elevator manufacturer such as ThyssenKrupp, and a hygiene goods manufacturer like Hagleitner all have in common? They all use the potential of digitization to offer smarter and faster services to customers and to actively shape the digital transformation of their business models. This book provides valuable insights with concise and established guidelines for the successful digital transformation of business models. Professionals in management, strategic planning, business development, as well as researchers and students from the fields of innovation/technology management, strategic management, and entrepreneurship would particularly benefit from this book.

Comprehensive resource explaining how to evaluate technologies for different purposes in any industry using four different practical approaches By identifying emerging technology and application trends through analyses of published papers and patents, Future-Oriented Technology Assessment offers a comprehensive view of technology assessment structured into three different practical approaches: Technology Evaluation, Technology Roadmapping, and Technology Intelligence. The first three chapters include studies which utilize technology gap analysis, multiple criteria decision analysis, expert assessment quantification or neural networks to evaluate or forecast technology alternatives. The next four chapters use technology roadmapping, which charts a comprehensive plan for implementing technology. The final five chapters apply bibliometric analysis, patent analysis, and network analysis to identify technology trends and the leaders in the field. Additional topics covered in Future-Oriented Technology Assessment include: Smart grid technology as an alternative to fossil fuel consumption Heat pump water heaters that reduce the cost of energy and improve energy efficiency, with particular focus on research from the US and China Nanotechnology in construction in Saudi Arabia to improve heat insulation, energy efficiency, and tensile strength in green building designs With comprehensive, practical insight into evaluating emerging technologies across different industries, Future-Oriented Technology Assessment is an essential read for researchers in technology and professionals in engineering and technology management, along with professionals and graduate students in related disciplines and programs of study.

​The exploration of ways to conceptualize the shaping of the present by socio‐technical futures is the aim of this volume. Therefore it brings together contributions from Science and Technology Studies and Technology Assessment, which focus all on the question how socio-technical images of the future shape present processes of innovation and transformation starting from empirical case studies and generalizing specific findings or by tackling conceptual questions from the outset. A white paper of 23 authors, which aims to sensitize researchers and practitioners completes the volume.

A practical framework for thinking about the future... and an exploration of 'future consciousness' and how to develop it

Tech Mining makes exploitation of text databases meaningful tothose who can gain from derived knowledge about emergingtechnologies. It begins with the premise that we have theinformation, the tools to exploit it, and the need for theresulting knowledge. The information provided puts new capabilities at the hands oftechnology managers. Using the material present, these managers canidentify and access the most valuable technology informationresources (publications, patents, etc.); search, retrieve, andclean the information on topics of interest; and lower the costsand enhance the benefits of competitive technological intelligenceoperations.

This book presents state-of-the-art intelligent methods and techniques for solving real-world problems and offers a vision of future research. Featuring 143 papers from the 4th Future Technologies Conference, held in San Francisco, USA, in 2019, it covers a wide range of important topics, including, but not limited to, computing, electronics, artificial intelligence, robotics, security and communications and their applications to the real world. As such, it is an interesting, exciting and inspiring read.

Expert interviews are today a standard method of qualitative approach in the social sciences. It is surprising that methodological reflections about the expert interview are still lacking. This book gives a comprehensive overview of their theory and practice. The contributors are experienced theorists and practitioners of expert interviews.

Have you ever wondered why even large companies fail when faced with changes in their environment? Would you be surprised to learn that the average life expectancy of a Fortune 500 company is below 50 years? This book presents findings from 19 case studies in multinational companies such as Siemens, Volkwagen, General Electric, Philips and Deutsche Telekom. René Rohrbeck proposes a Maturity Model to assess how prepared a company is to respond to external (disruptive) change. He uses data from 107 interviews with board members, corporate strategists, innovation managers, and corporate foresight professionals to present and discuss best practices. Using illustrations to show the complex interaction of corporate foresight with other units such as innovation and strategic management, René Rohrbeck provides the reader with rich insights on how to make an organization agile and reactive towards change. For scholars this book proposes multiple hypotheses and frameworks for future research.

Research and innovation in the life sciences is driving rapid growth in agriculture, biomedical science, information science and computing, energy, and other sectors of the U.S. economy. This economic activity, conceptually referred to as the bioeconomy, presents many opportunities to create jobs, improve the quality of life, and continue to drive economic growth. While the United States has been a leader in advancements in the biological sciences, other countries are also actively investing in and expanding their capabilities in this area. Maintaining competitiveness in the bioeconomy is key to maintaining the economic health and security of the United States and other nations. Safeguarding the Bioeconomy evaluates preexisting and potential approaches for assessing the value of the bioeconomy and identifies intangible assets not sufficiently captured or that are missing from U.S. assessments. This study considers strategies for safeguarding and sustaining the economic activity driven by research and innovation in the life sciences. It also presents ideas for horizon scanning mechanisms to identify new technologies, markets, and data sources that have the potential to drive future development of the bioeconomy.