Foresight of the innovation manager competencies

Abstract

In the current circumstances, creation of a model of innovation manager competencies appears to be an important scientific and practical task of ensuring the innovative development of the economy. Identification of future needs in competencies enables the education system to adapt elaborately the process of professional training of innovative personnel and increase the competitiveness of educational programs. The following paper summarizes and examines the existing models of competencies and skills based on bibliometric analysis of published works and content analysis of documents in Scopus and Web of Science, two leading databases. Studied were the competencies of the managerial profession on junior and middle management levels engaged in innovation activities, which includes the following: assessment of the commercial potential of innovations; operational planning and organizing management of innovation activities; management of all stages of the innovation project; working with partners in the innovation market; control of measures to promote innovations in the market, etc. An approach to form a model of competencies of an innovation manager has been proposed in the form of an ordered list of five groups: professional, functional, digital, socio-cultural and cognitive competencies. The paper uses foresight methodology to determine the future demand for competencies and areas of professional innovative training. The authors analyze the potential of foresight methodology and study of future in the development of innovation management competencies. First and foremost, an attempt has been made to assess the level of training and significance in practice for managers of 61 competencies through a large-scale national survey of innovation experts working in Kazakhstan companies. The researchers consider modern methods of training and developing the competencies of innovation managers. For this purpose, the study has been supplemented with in-depth interviews.