Methodological considerations on chance discovery

We investigate the methodological foundations of a new research field called chance discovery which aims to detect future opportunities and risks. By drawing on concepts from cybernetics and system theory, it is argued that chance discovery best applies to open systems that are equipped with regulatory mechanisms to approximate an 'ideal' state. We will motivate anticipation, as an additional (regulatory) mechanism that 'creates' new future alternatives for open systems by human initiative. Our framework is applied to chance discovery in enterprises and scientific research programmes.