Abstract

This research aims to identify the impact of strategic foresight on strategic entrepreneurship in technical education institutions. Research has been applied in some technical education institutions in the city of Najaf in Iraq, 60 questionnaires were distributed and the number of valid questionnaires was 46, and the response rate was 76%.

The research was based on the analytical method using simple and multiple regression. The simple and multiple relationships were also calculated. The results showed that there is a significant and important role for the strategic foresight in the strategic entrepreneurship, and successful institutions need high attention to strategic foresight .

Introduction

Strategic entrepreneurship is a strategic goal for many organizations that seek sustainability, growth and sustainability. This requires many factors and elements. Essentially, strategic entrepreneurship encompasses combination of the entrepreneurial (opportunity seeking) perspectives and strategic (competitive-advantage seeking) perspectives aiming at implementation of entrepreneurial short, mid and long-term strategies to mitigate risks, and create value and wealth for stakeholders and society at large (Hanne et al., 2016) . This requires; inputs entailing environmental, organizational and individual resources; and processes involving orchestration of the resources; to culminate to value creation, competitive advantage, wealth building, and knowledge spill-over benefits, necessitating need for appropriate plans ( Mazzei, 2018) . In tandem, given that entrepreneurship is characterized by elements such as; identification of opportunities, innovation or novelty, vision, creativity, pro-activeness, and competitive aggressiveness, often coupled with uncertainties, liabilities, and risk taking in increasingly complex corporate world; the integration of strategic entrepreneurial-based management perspectives is essential to avoid future declines (Mazzei et al.,2017) . Hence, organizations are adapting strategic foresight, not only to guarantee durability of organizational outcomes like adaptive learning, innovation and ambidexterity (Poliokoite et al., 2014), but also mitigate causes of declining performance. In a nutshell, strategic foresight enables creation and maintenance of high-quality .

In the context of this study, universities are increasingly, either directly or indirectly, becoming entrepreneurial (Kevin, 2016; Yildirin & Askun, 2012) . For instance; they are training future entrepreneurs, individuals who will establish their own businesses; organizing business incubators, technology parks, and research and development (R&D); aiming to create wealth by investing in businesses; creating linkages and partnerships with technological enterprises; and establishing firms through academic-related entrepreneurship; among others (Budyldina, 2018) . Hence, to encourage strategic entrepreneurial behavior and culture in universities a dynamic entrepreneurial practices are being established through strategic focus and organizational structuring aligned with strategic foresight to overcome inevitable challenges in increasing complex and competitive entrepreneurial globalized world (Allan, 2017) . For example, Mike et al. (2012) provides an integrated mechanism that attempt to explain the diversity of growth among multifaceted university spin-offs, suggesting for synchronization of support between universities and outsourcing partners to meet the growth contingencies. However, there still seem to be lack of holistic framework of analysis that clearly prescribes how strategic foresight activities should be blended in an organic manner, to corroborate strategic decision-making in universities. Therefore, this paper explores strategic foresight with an aim to establish its effect on strategic entrepreneurship in universities. consequently, here we can ask why foresight ? so it can answer by the figure 1.

Figure 1. why foresight

Literature Review

2.1.Strategic Foresight

Strategic foresight has been a pivotal sub-component of strategic management, increasingly manifesting itself in enabling organizations to explore and successfully utilize opportunities or ventures overlooked by organization's competitors; hence leading to high and sustainable performance (Vecchato, 2012). This has seen strategic foresight tools and activities incorporated into many of modern organizations.

In tandem, Adegbile et al. (2011) opine that strategic foresight is an elusive concept with varying meanings to different individuals or organizations; citing absence of agreeable definitions regarding "foresight", and pinpointing this to have led to attempt by many scholars to conceptualize "strategic foresight" of which some have overlapped. The researcher categorizes conceptualizations into four; managerial, organizational, technological, and process.

The view is triangulated by Vechiatto and Roveda (2009), who posit that though strategy formulation is strongly intertwined with the analyses of likely changes of the business environment to enable identification of entrepreneurial opportunities, thus making strategic foresight essential; the study still observes absence of overall framework of analysis that clearly elaborate the manner in which the strategic foresight activities ought to be conducted in an organization and be incorporated effectively to support the organizational decision makers.

Likewise, although many studies emphasize that incorporation of strategic foresight could culminate to durable organizational benefits by making organizations identify and mitigate likely risks which might retard their performances (Gilda et al., 2012) ; they, however, concur that the philosophical, theoretical, and empirical foundations on management and actualization of strategic foresight as organizing catalysts remain sparse and warranting further research (Vecchiato, 2012) .

Relating strategic foresight to strategic entrepreneurship, Dogan (2015) showcases strategic entrepreneurship as combination of entrepreneurship (opportunities identification) and strategic management (competitive advantage) significant for organizations to create maximum value, wealth and other benefits as dynamo of development (Kuratko & David, 2008) ; thus, helping firms to improve and generate sustainable competitiveness and profitability. Hoglund et al. (2014) went further to study application of strategic entrepreneurship in an inter-organizational context of both public and private organizations; and confirmed that strategic entrepreneurship motive, has been to keep conditions simple, communicate spillover knowledge, and ascertain flexibility; indicating that though theoretically strategic and entrepreneurial process are construed as opposite, they manifest mutual dependence enabling their existence (Nicolai & Jacob, 2014) . However, study pinpoints inadequacy of empirical studies on public organizations like universities pertaining to entrepreneurship, strategic management matters, and inherent consequences (Klein et al., 2013) . This study aims to explore the effect of strategic foresight on strategic entrepreneurship in universities aiming at strengthening it for sustainable and higher performance of universities' entrepreneurial ventures

2.2.Strategic Foresight Dimensions

2.2.1.Customer needs

The identification of the customer's requirements and helping him to find his needs is the stage that is called the stage of sales orientation, preceded by the product orientation stage where the objective is to determine the customer segment for this product (Robertson & Robertson,2012) . After the identification of the customer's identity, the next step is to determine the requirements and needs of this product Through research and marketing studies carried out by the company to know what the client wants specifically. (Baker,2016) There are many ways to find out what the customer needs, but the best and the most far from guessing is to ask the customers themselves face to face or through questionnaires prepared for this purpose (Brace,2018) .

The company that determines the needs and desires of the client gives it many advantages and makes it an excellent competitive position with the companies competing with . (Kotler,2015) There are other ways to determine the requirements of the customer and help him to find his needs and direct contact with customers and the study of customer trends and questions written and personal interviews and study complaints and benefit from customers and work to improve the notes negative and positive feedback development (Schmitt,2010) Retailers regularly deliver ads to customers. These businesses are established by identifying new possibilities for marketing, choosing the right advertising, and offering multiple offers according to customer preferences and needs. customers' needs are examined and included according to the times of immediate responses, in addition to enabling information and communication technology, clear customers and what they need (Brace,2018) .

2.2.2. Marketing offers

Marketing offers are made through advertising, which is the profession used to improve the products and services . (Andrews & Shimp,2017) The ad is known to attract public attention to something, whether a service or a product, by using various advertising on net , magazines, television , And newspapers. The declaration consists of elements representing a set of elements that contribute to building the effectiveness of the advertisements, and is divided into the following: (Moriarty,2014) Text (Title ) : influencing the advertisement and it should be communicated in a clear way .

Drawing: A collection of symbols help to enhance the advertisement.

Formatting: it is the way that put the advertisement elements together to get the final image .

Figure and size: The means and drawings that make up the strategic management and entrepreneurial activity emerged through the integration of strategic management into various innovation and creativity that enhance the competitiveness of the enterprise, as well as the support of strategic partnership, resources and education in the industry.

Strategic entrepreneurship is the integration of the entrepreneurial perspective (search for opportunity) and the strategic perspective (the search for advantage), to design and implement the pilot strategies that create prosperity, and that this integration is necessary for organizations (Zahra et al.,2009) .

Material and Methods

3.1. Instrument

The tools used to collect the data were the questionnaire. The questionnaire may be of two parts. The first part included the independent variable strategic foresight, which consists of three basic dimensions (customer needs ,marketing offers ,offers of competitors) , And the second part included the dependent variable strategic entrepreneurship, and the Cronbach alpha coefficient in table 1 was adopted to determine the accuracy of the scale. The results indicated that the scale has a high credibility. It recorded values greater than (0.70) for the variable of strategic foresight and its dimensions. (customer needs ,marketing offers ,offers of competitors) and for the strategic entrepreneurship variable, and the questionnaire was generally recorded as an acceptable value. size of the advertisements in magazines and newspapers, their dimensions and sizes vary according to their location within the magazine pages or cover, and the shape and size often depends on the specific purpose of the advertisement. paper is an important element of advertising. The type and composition of the paper convey a positive image of the advertisement.

2.2.3.Offers of competitors

Organizations and companies must decide how they will serve their target customers - how they will differentiate their position in the market compared to competitors. Value offers for a brand are a set of benefits or values that are delivered to consumers to meet their needs. ( Kapferer,2012) . The most competitive organizations and companies offer different forms of competition. They try to create competitive opportunities and compete in a competitive environment.

Different business organizations are analyzing competitors. and it represents a forces ,These forces are called competitive forces, which Porter refers to as the five forces represented by new and potential entrants, Competition among enterprises, customers, alternative products. ( Magretta,2011) .

2.3.Strategic Entrepreneurship

Interest in entrepreneurship has increased in recent years due to scientific and technological progress and the emergence of globalization, which has had a major impact on the business environment (Ratten,2011) ,Entrepreneurship has become an important subject, and as the pace of change in the business environment accelerates, this issue has become increasingly Table 1 Reliability Statistics important as an option for the organization to adjust to competition and change requirements , The concept of entrepreneurship began in 1985 as a result of the organizations' exposure to a wave of rapid changes in the various technological, social and economic fields that led to the need to support the entrepreneurial spirit (Brush,2013) .

(Covin & Slevin,1991) presented the concept of a strategic entrepreneurship position within organizations by noting that both strategic decisions and management philosophy included a leadership focus and they noted the importance of linking Entrepreneurship with a conceptual term related to organizational behavior, for example, that entrepreneurial effectiveness is measured by the performance of the organization, and that the Entrepreneurship model emphasizes behaviors, organizational behavior is managed through the generation of organizational strategies and administrative interventions. Lumpkin & Dess (1997) expanded this concept by introducing a "Entrepreneur-edge approach" that showed the tendency of organizations to be creative, risk-tolerant, initiatory and strategic. Vankataraman & Sarasvathy in 2001 stated that entrepreneurship and strategy (two sides of a single coin) are both focused on creating value.

The use of the concept of entrepreneurship by institutions has been broadened and the number of trends interpreted by it has been broadened as a vital element that should be mentioned in the various dimensions associated with it. (Helfat & Peteraf,2015) .

In the context of entrepreneurial work and the direction towards creating prosperity. Thus, the overlap between 4689 The International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Invention, vol. 5, Issue 05, May, 2018 The study was carried out in the technical education institute in Iraq. The population of the study conducted activities related to the study variables. A random sample of 60 was selected. However, three were rejected to participate and complete the questionnaire. The number of questionnaires returned was 49, three were invalid and excluded, thus the final number of 46 questionnaires was used for analysis.

Accordingly, the response rate was 76%. Therefore, the sample size is sufficient to achieve the minimum required for data analysis.

3.2. Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework was formulated as figure 2 ,and the following regression model is tested to identify the effect of variables and dimensions as in the following equation: SE = α+B1CN +B2MO+3βOC

Figure 2. Conceptual Framework

3.Findings

3.1.Correlation

According to the results of the table 2, it is clear that there is a significant correlation between the independent variable strategic foresight and the dependent variable strategic entrepreneurship of 0.954, at a significant level of 0.05 , that support (H1) hypothesis .The correlation between the subvariables was the correlation between the customer needs and the strategic entrepreneurship 0.798 which is a significant correlation at the level of 0.05, that support (H11) hypothesis . and the correlation between the marketing offers and strategic entrepreneurship 0.752 which is a significant correlation at the level of 0.05, that support (H12) hypothesis . and the correlation between the offers of competitors and strategic entrepreneurship 0.884 which is a significant relationship at the level of 0.05, that support (H13) hypothesis .

3.2.Regression

The results of tables 3-6 show that there is a significant impact between the strategic foresight and the strategic entrepreneurship . The value of alpha (0.235) and beta value were recorded (0.994) . The model explained 91% of the change in the dependent variable, and the value of F is significant and acceptable value. this supports the hypothesis H2. And for dimensions, the customer needs has a significant impact on strategic leadership, the value of alpha (1.101) and beta value was recorded (0.719) , the model explained for 63.6% of the change in the dependent variable strategic entrepreneurship, and the value of F is significant and acceptable value. this supports the hypothesis H21. And the marketing offers has a significant impact on strategic entrepreneurship. The value of alpha 0.780 and beta value were recorded 0.837. The model explained 56.6% of the change in the dependent variable. and the value of F is significant and acceptable value . this supports the hypothesis H22. and The offers of competitors has a significant impact on strategic entrepreneurship. The value of alpha 1.110 and beta value were recorded 0.747 . The model explained for 78.1% of the change in the dependent variable. and the value of F is significant and acceptable value. This supports the hypothesis H23.

Table 2 Model Summary for Strategic. Foresight and Strategic. Entrepreneurship Strategic Entrepreneurship

Conclusion and discussion

Universities need to improve their outputs in order to achieve strategic entrepreneurship and work towards finding the successful factors to achieve this goal. The literature has shown that strategic foresight gives positive results in improving organizational outcomes and that will help the university to improve its estimates and future plans. And then prepare to the dealing of changeable environment, which is reflected positively on the achievement of strategic entrepreneurship.

Focusing on the strategic foresight and strategic entrepreneurship in universities, Agrawal et al. (2008) had earlier applied the Schumpeterian perspective of "creative destruction and incumbent displacement by new entrants" to indicate how organizations like universities combine entrepreneurial activities that create new opportunities with strategic activities thus creating value, wealth, and competitive advantage amid diminishing funding, increasing competition from globalization, shifting of students to more affordable online trainings, and societal over-expectation on performance (See Natalia, 2018). In this context, strategic foresight is considered instrumental for decision-makers to determine state-of-the-art ideas, technologies, structures, and skills, as the old ones become obsolete (Tavassoli et al., 2017) . Hence, amid increasing integration of strategic foresight and strategic entrepreneurship in universities, amid evidence on absence of strategic foresight holistic framework, philosophical, theoretical, and conceptual fundamentals of knowledge; this study explores effect of strategic foresight on strategic entrepreneurship in universities aiming at strengthening it for sustainable and higher performance of universities' entrepreneurial ventures.

Strategic foresight contributes to improving the factors that help entrepreneurs. The results have proven that the customer needs has greatly contributed to the achievement of business entrepreneurship, since providing the needs and desires of customers contributes effectively to improving the requirements of business entrepreneurship. Then the marketing offers affects the business entrepreneurship and results in the provision of marketing offers and their positive impact. Then the weaker effect is the effect of competitors' offers, which may require sufficient power elements and efficient plans in order to confront competitors. These results proved the positive role of strategic foresight in entrepreneurship.