Regina Gattringer, Melanie Wiener, Franz Strehl,
"The challenge of partner selection in collaborative foresight projects"
, in Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Vol. 120, Seite(n) 298-310, 7-2017, ISSN: 0040-1625
Original Titel:
The challenge of partner selection in collaborative foresight projects
Sprache des Titels:
Englisch
Original Kurzfassung:
In recent years the interest in inter-organizational collaborations when conducting foresight has increased. One
important and challenging aspect in such collaborative foresight projects is the selection of suitable partners,
which is analyzed in this paper.We do so based on existing literature and by an action research study: this collaborative
foresight project was conducted by the project initiators (Linz Center of Mechatronics Ltd. (LCM) and
Institute of Strategic Management, Johannes Kepler University Linz (ISM)) in cooperation with five companies.
The results show that there are - due to the objectives of collaborative foresight (e.g. joint creation of future
knowledge and ?out-of-the-box-thinking?) - special requirements regarding technological and organizational
proximity, trust and commitment. Related to technological resources we claim that a higher degree of diversity
is crucial and organizational proximity is less important. In thisway unique learning opportunities can be created
and opportunities for newideas can be generated. However, the companies have to be similar enough to facilitate
learning and to anticipate future developments. In addition,we suppose that geographical proximity is very helpful
in bringing the organizations together and facilitating the exchange of tacit knowledge. Furthermore, the results
show that criteria such as trust and commitment, often referred to as key factors, are of little relevance in
this context.
Forschungs-