Creating value through foresight: First mover advantages and strategic agility

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between corporate foresight and the capability of the organization to respond successfully to external changes (i.e., strategic agility). More generally, we investigate the value that firms, facing growing uncertainty because of the fast pace of external changes, create through foresight. We base our analysis on three different research streams: the first one is literature on environmental uncertainty; the second one is literature on strategic planning and first mover (dis)advantages; the third one is literature on organizational learning and organizational memories. We thus focus on two fundamental questions which characterize the interaction between turbulent environments, foresight and long-term performances: what kind of knowledge should organizations achieve in order to sustain their competitive edge? Under what conditions can this knowledge enhance strategic agility?

Does participation in global value chains extend export duration?

“…Second, “first‐mover advantage” and “incumbency advantage” of participation in GVCs could improve enterprises’ competitiveness. Traditionally, first‐mover enterprises participating in GVCs have as their priority to obtain advanced technology and generate excessive profit, so achieving the export competitive advantage in GVCs (Bao & Chen, ; Mathews, ; Suarez & Lanzolla, ; Vecchiato, ), while latecomer enterprises have to face entry barriers erected by first‐mover enterprises. Furthermore, first‐mover enterprises participating in GVCs could forge good relationships with MNCs depending on their “incumbency advantage”, and then obtain effective market information (e.g., product order, product price, and customer profile) in time, reducing trade risk caused by asymmetric information (Alpert & Kamins, ; Lourdes, ; Niedrich & Swain, ).…”

Corporate Foresight Benchmarking Report 2018: How Leading Firms Build a Superior Position in Markets of the Future

“…In this phase, the firm's aim is to build a lead-time advantage by which it lays the foundation to act ahead of its competitors (Tsoukas & Shepherd, 2004;van der Duin & den Hartigh, 2009;Vecchiato, 2015).…”

Embedding real options in scenario planning: A new methodological approach

“…Future research efforts should test the accuracy and reliability of our framework. We thus hope that scholars and practitioners might build upon our work in order to explore further and enhance the relationship between scenario planning, real options analysis and organizational learning (Vecchiato, 2015).…”