Megatrends and their use in economic analyses of contemporary challenges in the world economy

Abstract

The objective of the article was to perform a literature review to analyze the use of megatrends as an analytical framework in various areas of economic and social discourse. Following SALSA methodology, the scope of the research covers peer reviewed articles published between 2010 and 2018. The results show that the concept of megatrends has been utilized in analyzing the impact of fundamental economic and social changes in three main areas: foresight studies of selected industries, analyses of existing and anticipated changes in management and business practices, and other socioeconomic topics. The content of the most frequently used megatrends covered: technology developments, environmental changes, demographic shifts, urbanization, and changes in geopolitics. The most coherently defined megatrends that are frequently envisaged to exercise influence on the contemporary world, and are expected to continue to do so in the future, are: digitization and development of ICT and related technologies, urbanization growth, scarcity of resources and climate changes.

Megatrends and Trends Shaping Supply Chain Innovation

“…The need to expand the review and include a variety of publications (e.g. reports by consulting companies) was identified as a research opportunity in the literature review conducted by Malik and Janowska 2018 . Based on a systematic literature review and a workshop, a total of 23 megatrends (M) and 72 related trends (T) were identified as the summary in Table 7 shows.…”

“…Apart from the studies mentioned above, consulting firms such as EY, PWC and KPMG have explored megatrends by frequently mentioning demographic shifts, geopolitical changes and environmental impacts as key megatrends. These studies lack comprehensive and coherent understanding of megatrends with political, economic or social megatrends being the center of attention (Malik and Janowska 2018 ).…”

The next 100 years – applying megatrends to analyze the future of the Polish economy

“…Based on the results of a structured literature review covering research articles published between 2010 and 2018, the reference frequency and thematic application of megatrends have been established (Malik and Janowska, 2018). In the studied set of research papers, the concept of megatrends was frequently used to analyze the impact of the most profound ones on selected research areas, whose thematic scope can be divided into three general categories: foresight studies of selected industries, analyses of existing and anticipated changes in management and business practices, as well as other socio-economic topics.…”

“…The content of the most frequently used megatrends includes: technology development, environmental changes, demographic shifts, urbanization and changes in geopolitics. The results of the literature review (Malik and Janowska, 2018) made it possible to single out the seven preeminent megatrends most frequently referred to and relatively coherently defined by the authors, they are: 1) digitalization and development of ICT technologies (later digitalization), 2) resource scarcity, 3) climate change, 4) world population growth (later population growth), 5) population aging, 6) urbanization growth.…”

The Self-Employment Rate Index as a Measure of Economic Trends: Impact of Heterogeneity of the Self-Employed on the Quality of Indicators

“…Many economists believe the economy is currently undergoing quite fundamental changes (Leceta et al, 2017;Malik, Janowska, 2018;Rifkin, 2014;Rifkin, 2001;Scholz, 2013;Tapscott, 2014). The changes affect many spheres of human life.…”