Analysis of the Relationship between Technology Foresighting Generations and Tools

Technological change has increased drastically over the years, resulting with the shorter technology lifecycles and frequent disruption of established technologies, products and business models. As a result, the technology foresighting technique as a future anticipation tool has also evolved over time, now with reported six generations. These generations represent the various design, focus and purpose of a technology foresighting exercise at the global, regional, national and local levels. With time, the foresighting tools are getting more complex as more data and sophisticated analytical tools become more available. The improved technology is also enabling improved participation of the foresight exercise stakeholders. Through the use of bibliometrics, this study links various technology foresighting tools with the various foresighting generations. This is important in providing a guidance to the technology foresighting practitioners on appropriate tools to choose for a specific foresighting exercise. It is shown that the sixth-generation technology foresighting, through its more advanced tools, addresses some of the weaknesses in the preceding foresighting generations but also brings back some of their unique strengths.