Discussion, Contributions and Directions for Future Research

The analysis of corporate foresight at Apollo Bank with particular regard to its impact on strategic decisions has revealed a variety of interesting findings (Figure 7.1). By application of a trichotomous approach in analysing the phenomenon, the research provided an insight into each of the three areas, namely, the managers, the organization and the environment. Moreover, the consideration of judgement as an intermediary concept in the analytical investigation of corporate foresight’s impact on strategic decisions helps us understand why and under what circumstances corporate foresight influences strategic decisions. The following sections will therefore synthesize the outcomes of the data analysis and discuss these with reference to the literature on foresight. First, the conceptual findings will be discussed and evaluated. These findings are based upon the literature review, discussions of the foresight phenomenon and the analytical framework by which the phenomenon was investigated. Then, the empirical findings will be summarized, and the findings of this research will be compared with the findings in previous publications. Following this, a separate section is aimed at managers who are interested in the phenomenon under research. We will identify and describe the specific issues which focus on the improvement of the manifestation of corporate foresight in organizations. Finally, we shall discuss the research limitations and suggest potential areas for future research.