'Space of possibles'? Legitimacy, industry maturity and organizational foresight

Abstract

The dispositions and invisible cognitive structures central to organizational foresight are more likely to emerge in young or transforming industries, which are less constrained by the need to achieve institutional legitimacy. • Organizational foresight, conceived of as the ability to transgress boundaries and evaluate different futures, is seen as vital to an organization’s capabilities. • The roots of the awareness and perception from which organizational foresight emerge are often unconscious, being embedded in invisible cognitive structures which organize practices. • The emergence of organizational foresight is intimately linked to the institutional context of the firm, the modes of legitimacy which dominate that environment, and how balanced these conditions are with the subjective disposition of the organization. • The stability and convergence that characterize mature industries orientate organizations towards institutional legitimacy and the conservation of existing social relations and practices. • In emerging or transforming industries, there is a greater possibility for a disjuncture to occur between industry conditions and the situated practice of the organization, which may generate organizational foresight and opportunities to achieve strategic legitimacy.