What Does the Future Hold for Innovation Management Education?

General Societal Trends Most Likely To Shape Innovation Education In The Mid-Term Future

Although appealing, predicting trends (i.e. trend analysis) as practice of collecting information and attempting to spot a pattern is difficult, as historical data may not give a true picture of an underlying trend (Rescher, 1998). Predicting trends involves identifying turning points, but it is difficult to tell in the moment whether one observes mere aberrations or the beginning of a new trend. In addition, long-term projections need more data to support them, which may not always be available. The further out in time one forecasts, the greater the possibility of error, as the passage of time will inevitably introduce new variables. Because trend analysis is based on historical data, both the accuracy and reliability of such forecasts suffer when the environment changes or when one mistakes cyclical trends for long-term influences (Merkgraf, 2017). Despite those limitations, the inherent need to forecast future developments and anticipate problems is important and appealing in a dynamic and uncertain environment, and in higher education, change will be a constant state of affairs in the foreseeable future (Fagan, 2017).