be used. Its particular appeal is the use of expert networks, that can also be used to later source the technologies. In the Strategist role Corporate Foresight supports the identification of emerging business fields and supports the internal renewal and re-positioning efforts of the firm. In the Opponent role Corporate Foresight uses the insights from the environmental scanning to challenge ongoing R&D projects. The aim is to ensure that innovation initiatives are continuously benchmarked against emerging technologies and confronted with current customer needs. The study also showed that only a small number of firms have implemented the third role. In the majority of firms the aims of an innovation development project that have been defined are not challenged after the initial decision has been taken. This carries the risk that changing environmental conditions threaten the success of the innovation in development. Additionally, von der Gracht and Vennemann have developed a portfolio-approach, the so-called ‘Future-Fitness-Portfolio’, which enables companies to qualitatively compare amongst others and identify organizational improvement potential. The authors base their framework on both, corporate foresight and innovation management. Foresight and external search External search, understood as all organisational activities that involve the creation and recombination of knowledge from a wide range of external sources outside the boundaries of the firm, has recently been suggested as one of the key research frontiers for corporate foresight. Corporate foresight utilising external search for knowledge entails the usage of novel methods to monitor external development. Among these novel methods, Social Media Analytics for external search for knowledge and open foresight that enable firms to tune in to weak signals and scan the periphery has been shown to hold particular potential. Benefits Firms that have applied corporate foresight have received a number of benefits: Identify changes ahead of competition Trigger innovation initiatives Challenge innovation projects to make them more successful Overcoming dominant mental models that stand in the way of necessary organisational response Moderate strategic discussions Breaking away from path dependency Support the search, development, and acquisition of strategic resources On a higher level it has been documented that firms will be able to Enhance their perception on the external environment Trigger strategic organisational responses Trigger new innovation initiatives Contribute to organisational learning Shaping the future (by influencing other players to act) More recently a longitudinal study, that tracked 83 companies over a period of 7 years, has found that firms that have the