Corporate foresight capability in international business: towards organizational resilience in the fourth industrial revolution context

Abstract

The acceleration of chaotic changes and disruptions caused by the fourth industrial revolution raises the problem of organizational readiness for a highly volatile and turbulent future. This problem is especially vital for international firms whose very existence relies on sustaining their specific advantages on a global scale for a long enough period. In particular, such developments call for a more precise look at corporate foresight cognitive function and its role in sustaining international firms’ organizational resilience in the fourth industrial revolution era. Consequently, there was selected a set of nine public listed MNCs that meet two criteria: fourth industrial revolution organizational recognition and institutionalized corporate foresight. The observed MNCs are Adidas, Bayer, BMW, Ericsson, General Electric, Renault, Henkel, Johnson & Johnson, and Siemens. MNCs of the highest resilience - Adidas, Ericsson, and Johnson & Johnson - are suggested to be viewed as the role models of corporate foresight conversion into the global strategies devised to survive the Fourth Industrial Revolution. At the same time, the lower resilience companies that seek future sensitivity have all the chances to straighten up their results in the near future. Their current behavior is of extreme interest for further in-depth study.