New evolutionary trajectories in business landscape: a Delphi study

In last years, some key business, social and technological trends, such as Digital transformation, Humanistic management, New customers, Ageing population, and Circular economy, emerged as particularly impactful on management practices. This paper is part of a broader research project aimed at exploring managers’ awareness of and sensitivities toward these trends, their perceived current stage of development, and their expected impact on business, markets, and firms in the medium term (3-5 years). More specifically we are conducting a Delphi study in order to elicit and aggregate experts’ opinions (managers and consultants with sound experience in innovation and management practices across different sectors) on the trends under investigation. In this working paper we present the conceptual background of our research project by illustrating the definition of each macro trend and the by identifying the key aspects associated to each trends based on the preliminary findings that emerged from our Delphi study.