Evaluating the Impact of Foresight on Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Policymaking

Today, the technology foresight has shifted from R&D policy to broader context of social policy. So the foresight literature reflects there is a gap with a link between foresight and policy-making. Most of the existing literatures focused on the organization and implementation of foresight activities and the way to convert the foresight outcomes into policy. Despite the attempts done by some studies, forming foresight as an instrument for Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Policymaking in a theoretical framework is regarded as a shortcoming in the literature of the subject. This paper tries to bridge the existing gap, with an emphasis on its role as a policy intelligent instrument and uses the mixed method for this purpose. The mixed method approach in this paper is the sequential exploratory design that “characterized by the collection and analysis of qualitative data followed by the collection and analysis of quantitative data”. First, the conceptual framework is developed in the qualitative part of this research by concept of adaptive foresight and constant comparative method of analysis (CCM). Second, in the quantitative section, quantitative tests were used to evaluate the factors, dimensions and components of developed theoretical framework. A questionnaire is used as a data collection tool and to test the proposed model a sample of 15 experts in the field of foresight and policymaking answered the questions on the questionnaire. The results confirmed the proposed dimensions of framework.