Formerly called "industrial anticipation", strategic anticipation or corporate anticipation (in English: Corporate foresight), which certainly includes and understands technological anticipation, brings together the techniques of documentary and informative research and information processing, allowing the adoption of some convenient and timely strategic decision in the case of a certain company or a certain administration, even a certain State.

In 2007, an interesting investigation[1]​ already indicated that strategic anticipation in France encompassed or should encompass very broad aspects, integrating other types of more specific and concrete "anticipations", and to a certain extent thus forming a kind of "meta-anticipation" or "meta-knowledge about the possible future".

In fact, the people questioned about what they thought or what they felt, indicated by a large majority, that "strategic anticipation" or "prospective anticipation" should consider a 360° orientation, although in some cases it emphasized more on economic, societal, technological, regulatory, financial, good image aspects, or was more specific about competing companies, etc.

There are certainly several types of strategic anticipation, similar to what happens with "corporate anticipation" or "legal anticipation").

These different classes or types respond to very precise objectives with respect to the organization or institution to which they are oriented, in order to generally provide the following benefits: