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This chapter outlines a discursive epistemology of knowledge production through an analysis of the role of time and context in the social construction of organizational insights, outcomes and theories. While the role of time and context has been widely acknowledged in organizational discourse analysis, it has remained unclear what is specific to knowledge generation. Drawing upon a case study of an attempted company acquisition, the authors illustrate how knowledge is discursively produced and consumed during a process of strategizing. The analysis of this study shows how knowledge producing processes (e.g., strategizing, theorizing, conceptualizing and hypothesizing) extend both the time horizon of discourses that relate to the future, and the context horizon for discourse(s) that relate to the broader context. This reconstructs the tapestry of interwoven discourses that make up a local discourse and enable new managerial knowledge to be produced.

In this review, the aim is first to define horizon scanning and then outline the general approach currently employed by many organisations using web‐based resources. It then aims to discuss the benefits and drivers of horizon scanning, to identify some organisations currently undertaking activities in the field, and explain in detail how the web‐based horizon scanning approach is implemented. The aim is then to conclude with a discussion of good practice and areas for further research.

The basis for this review is a symposium held at the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory in March 2010, where groups undertaking horizon scanning activities shared practices and reviewed the state of the art. Practitioners from both public sector and private organisations attending this symposium, as well as others, were invited to contribute to the manuscript, developing this as an iterative exercise over the last year.

Structured processes of web‐based horizon scanning, underpinned by strong technical understanding and principles of good practice described in the review, can add significant value to organisational decision making.

While a growing number of private and public sector organisations have already embarked on the use of the web as a key information resource, no detailed explanation of the web‐based horizon scanning approach has been published. The review therefore makes an original contribution to this field, with collaborations by horizon scanning practitioners, discussing what constitutes good practice and highlighting areas where future research is needed.

The importance of a market orientation as the basis for meeting customer expectations is well known in marketing. In applying this concept to networks or netchains, the concept “customer horizon” is proposed to measure the ability to name or identify downstream customers and their requirements. A case study of five organizations in a netchain is examined to determine each company's customer horizon in terms of “breadth” and “length”. Based on the findings, it is suggested that companies can choose between alternative configurations of customer horizons. It is argued that it may be important to watch out for narrow and short customer horizons – especially when customer satisfaction is low, end consumer requirements are changing and/or these changes are not being communicated upstream to suppliers.

We compare the finite sample power of short- and long-horizon tests in nonlinear predictive regression models of regime switching between bull and bear markets, allowing for time varying transition probabilities. As a point of reference, we also provide a similar comparison in a linear predictive regression model without regime switching. Overall, our results do not support the contention of higher power in longer horizon tests in either the linear or nonlinear regime switching models. Nonetheless, it is possible that other plausible nonlinear models provide stronger justification for long-horizon tests.

Both task‐based and work‐oriented research approaches have proved their value in information science research. A task is a workable analytical unit of human activity, which brings the level of explication close enough to cater for individual actions and their consequences. Similarly, work and work roles have been effective concepts at explicating the broad patterns of professional information activity. Major issues of the existing approaches are the difficulty of conceptualising the contexts of tasks and the relatively high level of abstraction of a work level scrutiny. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the concepts of “work”, “work role” and “task” might be integrated into a common research agenda. It is suggested that the explication of work and work roles might serve in providing additional understanding on the formation of the purposes, meanings and values, which guide the shaping of the activities conceptualised as tasks.

The issue is discussed in general with a reference to an empirical study of information work of archaeology professionals informed by the notion of work role.

It is suggested that the broader notions of work and work roles are useful concepts for explicating the context of more specific tasks.

The suggested approach brings together task and work–work role‐based research and provides a basis for exploring human information activity from a broader perspective than before and thus improving the general understanding of why and how information is used as it is used.

The study provides an approach to conceptualise the ways how people work with information and lays the ground for improving information management and organisation practices.

There has been little prior discussion about integrating the task and work‐based approaches. The paper suggests that the explication of work and work roles might serve in providing additional understanding on the formation of the purposes, meanings and values, which guide the shaping of the activities conceptualised as tasks.

There has recently been an increase in interest in the notion of “network pictures” amongst researchers in the field of business‐to‐business marketing. Network pictures are managers' subjective mental representations of their relevant business environment. They are posited to work as “sense‐making” devices, and consequently shape managerial decisions, actions, and evaluations. However, while interest in this concept has been reported in a range of literature that is here identified and discussed, there has been no attempt to rigorously conceptualise the underlying dimensions of such pictures. This paper aims to address this issue.

Based on an extensive review of previous work, this study proposes a parsimonious set of interrelated dimensions, and initially tests this approach.

This article shows the model's face validity, but also argues that not all dimensions are perceived as being equally useful: utilisation of the different dimensions is determined more by what it is that managers wish to represent.

The implications of the concept of network pictures, as well as further research propositions, are discussed.

As researchers develop their interest in network pictures, so one needs to develop one's understanding of what their underlying dimensions are. A parsimonious set of such dimensions is developed and tested.

In this introduction, the authors outline some critical reflections on the sociology of knowledge within management and organization theory. Based on a review of various works that form a sociology of organizational knowledge, the authors identify three approaches that have become particularly prominent ways by which scholars explore how knowledge about organizations and management is produced: First, reflective and opinion essays that organization studies scholars offer on the basis of what can be learned from personal experience; second, descriptive craft-guides that are based on more-or-less comprehensive surveys on doing research; third, papers based on systematic research that are built upon rigorous collection and analysis of data about the production of knowledge. Whereas in the studies of organizing the authors prioritize the third approach, that is knowledge produced based on systematic empirical research, in examining our own work the authors tend to privilege the other two types, reflective articles and surveys. In what follows the authors highlight this gap, offer some explanations thereof, and call for a better appreciation of all three ways to offer rich understandings of organizations, work and management as well as a fruitful sociology of knowledge in our field.

The purpose of this article is to identify points of conceptual conflict between evidence‐based policy research and horizon (environmental) scanning.

The paper begins with a brief history of foresight in UK government, then describes the current government context for horizon scanning. Next, it defines horizon scanning as a method; highlights the contradictions between horizon scanning and more traditional empirical research; and offers suggestions to improve the rigor of horizon scanning.

Increased focus on defining the rules for source identification and scan data validation can enhance credibility.

Current horizon scanning work in the UK government suggests these methodological improvements, but proof will wait upon completion and deployment of several ongoing horizon scans.

Provides improved acceptability and dissemination of horizon scanning as a tool, as well as heightened engagement of policy‐makers, planners, and leaders with horizon scanning output.

There has been little previous work exploring the cultural constraints on adoption of horizon scanning within the evidence‐based polity context.

Web‐based information retrieval offers the potential to exploit a vast, continuously updated and widely available repository of emerging information to support horizon scanning and scenario development. However, the ability to continuously retrieve the most relevant documents from a large, dynamic source of information of varying quality, relevance and credibility is a significant challenge. The purpose of this paper is to describe the initial development of an automated web‐based information retrieval system and its application within horizon scanning for risk analysis support.

Using an area of recent interest for the insurance industry, namely, space weather — the changing environmental conditions in near‐Earth space — and its potential risks to terrestrial and near‐Earth insurable assets, the authors benchmarked the system against current information retrieval practice within the emerging risks group of a leading global insurance company.

The results highlight the potential of web‐based horizon scanning to support risk analysis, but also the challenges of undertaking this effectively. The authors addressed these challenges by introducing a process that offers a degree of automation — using an API‐based approach — and improvements in retrieval precision — using keyword combinations within automated queries. This appeared to significantly improve the number of highly relevant documents retrieved and presented to risk analysts when benchmarked against current practice in an insurance context.

Despite the emergence and increasing use of web‐based horizon scanning in recent years as a systematic approach for decision support, the current literature lacks research studies where the approach is benchmarked against current practices in private and public sector organisations. This paper therefore makes an original contribution to this field, discussing the way in which web‐based horizon scanning may offer significant added value for the risk analysts, for what may be only a modest additional investment in time.