Technology foresight for growth and productivity: the design and implementation of a new foresight approach for UK SMEs

“Focal是战略和政策规划中非常真实的趋势的一个方便和令人回味的标签（Vecchiato，2015）。它的崛起是由商业环境的不确定性和企业的相关困难，以维持其业绩在长期的驱动力。尽管在过去的20年中，技术预见在大公司越来越受欢迎，很少有证据表明，在中小企业中使用技术预见。之所以采用有限，是因为它们侧重于日常业务、战略决策的短期视野、对环境变化采取被动办法、监测和评估新技术的资源有限，以及最重要的是，缺乏与技术展望有关的方法技能和能力。然而，远见对中小企业，特别是生产率低的中小企业十分有益，因为它能够迅速选择新技术，从而促进长期的生产率和国际竞争力。总的来说，远见将使中小企业能够系统地确定优先事项和联合战略行动，从而优化资源配置，促进产品和工艺创新。第一阶段将侧重于确定合适的中小企业和技术专家参与该项目。第二阶段将包括一个德尔菲进程，以便能够确定最相关的技术。第三阶段将包括两个讲习班，企业家和技术专家将在讲习班上开会，评估发展情况、影响（例如，新产品和工艺），以及采用/开发新的关键技术的应对方案。"

"Foresight is a convenient and evocative label for a very real trend in strategy and policy planning (Vecchiato, 2015). Its rise to prominence was driven by the increasing uncertainty of the business environment and the associated difficulty of firms to sustain their performance in the long run.Despite the growing popularity of technology foresight among large corporations in the last 20 years, little evidence has been found on the use of technology foresight in SMEs. This limited adoption is attributed to their focus on day-by-day operations, short-term horizon in strategic decision making, reactive approach to environmental changes, constrained resources for monitoring and assessing new technologies, and -- most important -- a lack of methodological skills and competences related to technology foresight. However, foresight can very beneficial to SMEs, especially those who have low-productivity, by enabling the prompt selection of new technologies and thus fostering long-term productivity and international competitiveness. Overall, foresight will enable SMEs to set priorities and joint strategic actions, in a systematic way, leading to the optimal allocation of resources to product and process innovation.This project will consist of three main phases. The first phase will focus on the identification of suitable SMEs and technology experts to involve in the project. The second phase will consist of a Delphi process enabling the identification of the most relevant technologies. The third phase will consist of two workshops through which entrepreneurs and technology experts will meet to assess the evolution, impact (e.g., new products and process), and the response options available for adopting/developing new critical technologies."