Forecasting plays a critical role in the development of organisational business strategies. Despite a considerable body of research in the area of forecasting, the focus has largely been on the financial and economic outcomes of the forecasting process as opposed to societal benefits. Our motivation in this study is to promote the latter, with a view to using the forecasting process to advance social and environmental objectives such as equality, social justice and sustainability. We refer to such forecasting practices as Forecasting for Social Good (FSG) where the benefits to society and the environment take precedence over economic and financial outcomes. We conceptualise FSG and discuss its scope and boundaries in the context of the “Doughnut theory”. We present some key attributes that qualify a forecasting process as FSG: it is concerned with a real problem; it is focused on advancing social and environmental goals and prioritises these over conventional measures of economic success; and it has a broad societal impact. We also position FSG in the wider literature on forecasting and social good practices. We propose an FSG maturity framework as the means to engage academics and practitioners with research in this area. Finally, we highlight that FSG: (i) cannot be distilled to a prescriptive set of guidelines, (ii) is scalable, and (iii) has the potential to make significant contributions to advancing social objectives.

预测在组织业务战略的发展中起着至关重要的作用。尽管在预测领域进行了大量研究，但重点主要集中在预测过程的财务和经济结果上，而不是社会效益。我们在这项研究中的动机是促进后者，以期利用预测过程来推进社会和环境目标，例如平等、社会正义和可持续性。我们将此类预测实践称为社会公益预测 (FSG)，其中对社会和环境的益处优先于经济和财务结果。我们将 FSG 概念化并在“甜甜圈理论”的背景下讨论其范围和边界。我们提出了一些将预测过程限定为 FSG 的关键属性：它与一个真正的问题有关；它专注于推进社会和环境目标，并将这些目标置于衡量经济成功的传统措施之上；它具有广泛的社会影响。我们还将 FSG 定位在有关预测和社会良好实践的更广泛文献中。我们提出了一个 FSG 成熟度框架，作为让学者和从业人员参与该领域研究的手段。最后，我们强调 FSG：（i）不能提炼成一套规范的指导方针，（ii）是可扩展的，（iii）有可能为推进社会目标做出重大贡献。我们还将 FSG 定位在有关预测和社会良好实践的更广泛文献中。我们提出了一个 FSG 成熟度框架，作为让学者和从业人员参与该领域研究的手段。最后，我们强调 FSG：（i）不能提炼成一套规范的指导方针，（ii）是可扩展的，（iii）有可能为推进社会目标做出重大贡献。我们还将 FSG 定位在有关预测和社会良好实践的更广泛文献中。我们提出了一个 FSG 成熟度框架，作为让学者和从业人员参与该领域研究的手段。最后，我们强调 FSG：（i）不能提炼成一套规范的指导方针，（ii）是可扩展的，（iii）有可能为推进社会目标做出重大贡献。