Repository logo

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
  1. Home
  2. Academic and Research Output
  3. Conferences, Workshops, Symposiums, and Seminars
  4. Weak signals as a flexible framing space for enhanced management and decision-making
 
conference paper

Weak signals as a flexible framing space for enhanced management and decision-making

Rossel, Pierre  
2009
Technology Analysis & Strategic Management
Conference on From Oracles to Dialogue - Exploring New Ways to Explore the Future

This paper revisits theories of weak signal analysis using the concepts of 'framing' and 'meta-framing' to provide an enriched methodological environment for management and decision-making in turbulent contexts. This attempt takes place within the effort that futures studies have deployed to cope with the need to be 'early' in change processes, and is intended to improve firms' preparedness regarding uncertainties, threats and opportunities. The weak signal notion is one of the metaphors coined to accomplish that, thanks to the seminal role played by Igor Ansoff in the 1970s and 1980s, and the inputs of more recent continuators who have shaped a wide methodological environment. After over 20 years of weak signal exploration, some pending issues suggest the need to re-open some basic hypotheses as well as the use of a wide-angle lens to review the Ansoff legacy and its relevance for management and decision-making. The concepts of framing and meta-framing are the means that will allow us to do this by adding a more reflexive dimension to weak signal analysis, taking account of analysts' and commissioning organisations' own biases, and enhancing firms' robustness against possibly disruptive futures. Pragmatic managerial orientations of how to make use of methodological blends involving reflexive steps will be outlined, also suggesting diverse tracks for further research on weak signal theories and their contributions to both futures studies and strategic management.

  • Details
  • Metrics
Type
conference paper
DOI
10.1080/09537320902750616
Web of Science ID

WOS:000264794300003

Author(s)
Rossel, Pierre  
Date Issued

2009

Published in
Technology Analysis & Strategic Management
Volume

21

Start page

307

End page

320

Subjects

weak signal

•

framing

•

constructivism

•

paradigmatic biases

•

reflexivity

•

Foresight

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
MTEI-GE  
Event nameEvent placeEvent date
Conference on From Oracles to Dialogue - Exploring New Ways to Explore the Future

Athens, GREECE

Jul 09-11, 2007

Available on Infoscience
November 30, 2010
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/60340
Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
  • Contact
  • infoscience@epfl.ch

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Follow us on LinkedIn
  • Follow us on X
  • Follow us on Youtube
AccessibilityLegal noticePrivacy policyCookie settingsEnd User AgreementGet helpFeedback

Infoscience is a service managed and provided by the Library and IT Services of EPFL. © EPFL, tous droits réservés