When foresight meets action research: A methodological approach to wicked problems

Responding to recent calls from action research (AR) scholars to move beyond business-centric and immediate concerns, this paper investigates how integrating foresight with AR can enhance engagement with wicked problems. These are complex societal and intertemporal challenges that require both short-term and long-term perspectives. Methodologically, we explore how foresight can facilitate more radical cognitive shifts from AR scholars and participants, enabling them to transcend present-oriented, organization-centered issues and engage more effectively with the complexities of wicked problems. Our study contributes to bridging AR and foresight by proposing a stepwise methodology that incorporates intertemporal and systemic thinking into AR's initial stage of problem framing and diagnosis. We illustrate this approach through a foresight–AR study conducted with a diverse set of organizations and outline a stepwise process for addressing interorganizational and wicked problems. The proposed stepwise F-AR methodology enhances problem formulation by broadening the scope of inquiry, fostering disruptive and collective thinking across organizations, and supporting the co-construction of actionable strategies. In doing so, it advances AR as a means in addressing uncertain, multistakeholder futures.