A Weak Signal Analysis Framework for Business Managers in the Information Technology Field

Environmental changes are sources of opportunities and threats for businesses. Therefore, it is necessary to identify and analyze weak signals by managers in order to predict the future environmental changes of the business. Therefore, the current research aims to use the capacities and potentials of weak signals to analyze business environmental changes. This research is of applied-developmental type. In the first part of the study, a systematic review method was used. The results of the search for the articles related to the research areas of foresight, sensemaking, entrepreneurship research and strategic choice, were combined in a single list of articles. Then, in the second part of the study, qualitative data such as data from interviews and documents were used to understand and explain the phenomenon. Qualitative data were collected by conducting in-depth semi-structured interviews and then were analyzed with the help of content analysis method, in order to obtain the indicators and components of the considered framework. The findings of the research indicate that managers can react appropriately to the company's environmental changes by applying the concepts of weak signals. They can go through three stages, namely identification, interpretation and action, in order to analyze the weak signals. In the first stage, managers can collect information from 11 sources, and in the second stage, they can interpret the collected information with the help of analytical elements such as sense creation, using intuition, thinking about the future, analyzing the signals, and using business intelligence, and then In the action stage of the analysis process, complete the weak signals analysis.