Strategic Foresight and Innovation Management: A Comparative Study across International Swiss Banks

Abstract

International Swiss banks are challenged more than ever. The fast-paced global environment forces them to develop new and innovative products, services, and processes to sustain in the long-term. Therefore, strategic foresight is important to understand the organisations’ customers, their evolving needs and changing behaviour, and in turn provides banks with the necessary analysis and knowledge about future customer needs, enabling them to take the right decisions to be prepared for future change. This paper investigates how the incorporation of strategic foresight in international Swiss banks is executed to enhance their innovation activity. Through an in-depth analysis of academic papers and three case studies based on twelve qualitative interviews with management representatives from the financial services industry, a new framework was developed. The framework of “enhanced innovation activity through collaborative foresight activities” is designed as an iterative process consisting of internal and external dimensions. Innovation activity can be enhanced while focusing on setting the right parameters throughout the organisation. The strategic foresight process enables practitioners in collecting the right information about future trends and customer needs, which supports innovative thinking and human involvement. Applying the framework reinforces banks in focusing on the decisive dimensions of the strategic foresight process and enhances innovation activity. Keywords: strategic foresight, innovation management, enhanced innovation activity framework, foresight research, Swiss banks