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In February this year the sequence of the human genome was published, opening a new chapter in medicine. Soon genetic testing will be at the heart of diagnosis, epidemiology, drug development and even regenerative medicine. Before we are born there will be new opportunities to remedy genetic defects, and afterwards to make almost lifelong prognoses. The debate will intensify on the use of human embryos in medical research, while the prospect of human cloning will fascinate some scientists and horrify others. Europe needs to be in the vanguard of this new industrial revolution, but a host of ethical concerns must first be addressed – because genomics is as much about privacy as Petri dishes.

The purpose of this paper is to envision the alternative futures of the design and manufacturing industry using an integrated foresight method based on scenario planning. Also, the authors aim at developing robust strategies for an enterprise that aims to be placed as a leading high-tech international design and manufacturing company in 2035.

The proposed approach is created by integrating several foresight methods such as Delphi, scenario planning, MICMAC and cross-impact analysis.

Automation and sustainable development are found as the fundamental driving forces in the design and manufacturing industry. Four scenarios based on these driving forces and expert knowledge are created: innovation adaptation, forced automation (business-as-usual), sustainable era and automationless scenarios. For the developed scenarios, a set of strategies are proposed by asking experts about the strategies which can be taken to make the enterprise competitive in all developed scenarios in 2035. The main macro-level outcome is that economic and technological drivers will be the most important factors for design and manufacturing, followed by environmental and social factors.

The proposed method uses the strengths of traditional scenario planning but overcomes its weaknesses by suggesting a systematic process for scenario building and easy application.

Social media has become a “thing” not just for its historical purpose of socialisation, but a multi-faceted platform of unpredictable possibilities. With the current high levels of actual usage, business on the platform has assumed different styles and has become one of the competing activities on this platform, creating a dilemma for the future. However, as social beings, we can manage such capricious adventure by means of research, to predict the possible destination before we are taken by surprise. One of such medium of studies is through the philosophies of the continuance intention theories. To this end, the purpose of this paper was to investigated some antecedents of social media that are capable of predicting the direction of this platform to test this theory of continuance intention, and the results from the predictive Smart PLS3 shows that the continuance intention for business on this platform will overtake socialisation to offer the biggest market among the elitist class in the near future, and not China, Nigeria or the NYSE.

This paper uses Predictive Smart PLS3 to analyse the continuance intention of social media platforms.

Predictive Smart PLS3 shows that the continuance intention for business on social media platform will overtake socialisation to offer the biggest market.

The questions asked in this study focussed on buyers and not platform managers. As the continuance intention depends on the latter as well, it would have been better if their opinions were also sought to determine what will make them continue to provide social media.

This paper is among the first to do such a study.

This paper aims to focus on the Tunisian National Innovation System (NIS) and the conditions that might foster its aptitude to support socio-economic transformation.

The paper adopts an original twofold foresight methodology combining the analysis of key players with the exploration of scenarios. While usually, a foresight exercise considers only one of these two futures studies approaches.

The “Dynamic Islands System” scenario reflects the present situation and current trends. It shows that all expected components of an efficient system are in place, but they are evolving more or less independently. “Connected System” is the most desirable option because it reflects the potential to improve strongly productivity, competitiveness and social inclusion. The “Dislocated System” is a third possible but risky scenario. Despite the interesting insights provided through futures imaging, the scenario approach is not sufficient in providing indications of how and which actors can make happen the changes needed to move towards the desired state. So, a second step of the adopted twofold foresight approach addresses the role of key players. The analysis aims to reveal which actors are in a position to implement the required changes and thereby support the transition from the present to the desired scenario.

The challenges ahead are then pointed out, namely, that the private sector and firms would have to take the lead in the future; and that the less influential players would have to work side by side to be able to direct the NIS to the “Connected scenario”.

The clue in this approach is to transform a sub-optimal reality to achieve a desired end-state by understanding the trend scenario. The actors’ analysis helps to clarify the respective attitudes and concerns of the players vis-à-vis the required changes. In this two-step foresight approach, the desired scenario is considered as a specific project.

This paper aims to propose a new strategic foresight process that combines aspects from science fiction, speculative design and tools linked to organizational processes, first, to generate potential new services and products and, second, to reduce problems associated with the construction of low-impact and irrelevant scenarios for decision-making processes. As a new proposal, it invites reflection and debate.

After reviewing the literature on the key concepts that represent the essence of strategic foresight, as well as the traditional processes to reflect on the future, a proposal for a new hybrid, integrative foresight process that allows moving from imagination to the materialization of scenarios will be presented.

The new hybrid process makes evident the need to articulate strategic foresight with other areas of knowledge and management tools to build scenarios with greater impact on decision-making and greater added value from strategic foresight to organizational processes.

The proposed integrative model articulates tools that already exist, but the originality of the proposal lies in that there are no models that integrate science fiction, speculative design, and other organizational tools in a single process.