CREATING SUPPORTING DATA FOR DECISION MAKING BY USING A SENSE AND RESPOND METHOD

Abstract

For several years the South East region of Finland, where the city of Kouvola is located, has been one of the world’s largest forest industry concentrated areas. In recent years, the forest industry companies have restructured their outsourcing strategies which have affected local engineer offices and metal industry companies. Kouvola Innovation Oy is affected by this since one of their main objectives is to develop the business operating environment in the area. Kouvola Innovation Oy sees that one potential new business for the area is renewable energy, especially bioenergy.

In this thesis I will introduce the role of technology foresight in creating competitive advantage using sense and respond methods and use the Critical Factor Index tool in creating supporting decision making data for Kouvola Innovation Oy for developing existing strategies and new ones.

The results suggest that the companies see bioenergy as an interesting and potential new business for the area. The results also indicate that there is improvement needed in product and service development. To be able to create new businesses to the area, networks and value chains are formed to gain competitive advantage to the area.