Exploring Corporate Foresight in the Start-up Context: Theoretical and Practical Considerations Toward an Integrated Approach

Corporate foresight involves future–oriented awareness and enables the company to detect discontinuous change early, interpret the consequences for the company and formulate effective strategic responses. In this study a focus is set on incumbent firms exposed to external change arising from start–ups. It is argued that start–ups are particular sources of disruptions which have therefore to be integrated into the corporate foresight activities. Based on 10 semi–structured interviews with foresight experts across different industries, the findings show how firms identify relevant start–ups and what are possible corporate foresight outcomes with the aim to successfully innovate and adapt to disruptive changes. However, the integration of start–ups into the corporate foresight processes needs adaptions to the current corporate foresight elements and practices in order to recognize the specific characteristics of the start–ups context. To help extending corporate foresight to the start–up context, this study first discusses current start–up focused foresight practices and identifies thereupon six challenges for the integration process.