23 November 2007, N. Malanowski and A. Zweck in Technological Forecasting & Social Change 74 (2007) 1805–1822

Bridging the gap between foresight and market research: Integrating methods to assess the economic potential of nanotechnology

This paper discusses how to bridge the gap between foresight research oriented to the long-term, and traditional

market research oriented to the medium to short term, when applied to an early stage of a technology's life cycle. It

proposes using an integrating approach, i.e. a combination of methods and both foresight and traditional market

research. A mix of complementary methods for the acquisition and analysis of data is presented in a case study.

This helps to overcome the deficits of some qualitative foresight methods and quantitative methods often used in

traditional market research and allows us to examine research results from the different methods applied both on

their own and as a group. In the absence of a single fully-fledged and accepted economic approach, this paper

argues that combined market research and foresight modules are the best possible approach for analyzing the

economic potential of emerging technologies like nanotechnology. In the future, similar applications of such market foresight modules may be useful, for example, as elements of foresight. They will also be useful in studies

of emerging technologies (e.g. converging technologies, cognitive science and Web 2.0) where traditional market

research does not produce a realistic market assessment.

Last changed: 23 November 2007

Comment on this article

tangmudan, 15 November 2008

GOOD,thankyou