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Responsible Innovation in Business

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Abstract

This chapter introduces responsible innovation in a business context. The first part explains the basic terms that constitute responsible innovation from a business perspective. The second part presents tangible business practices that operationalise responsible innovation and introduces two good practice examples that hint at the variety of ways in which responsible innovation can be implemented in companies.
7© The Author(s) 2020
K. Jarmai (ed.), Responsible Innovation, SpringerBriefs in Research and
Innovation Governance, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1720-3_2
Chapter 2
Responsible Innovation inBusiness
KatharinaJarmai, AdeleTharani, andCarolineNwafor
Abstract This chapter introduces responsible innovation in a business context. The
rst part explains the basic terms that constitute responsible innovation from a busi-
ness perspective. The second part presents tangible business practices that opera-
tionalise responsible innovation and introduces two good practice examples that
hint at the variety of ways in which responsible innovation can be implemented in
companies.
Keywords Responsible research and innovation · Responsible innovation ·
Corporate social responsibility · Applied nanoparticles · Yoti · B Corporation
2.1 Introduction
“So, do you mean that I am irresponsible?”
This is the response you may get when you ask an entrepreneur if they would like
to make their company’s innovation processes and innovative products more respon-
sible. Once you start explaining the elements of the responsible innovation (RI)
concept, your conversation partner will likely relax and conrm that yes, consumer
trust, ethical conduct or safety considerations are indeed of interest to their com-
pany, and that yes, they would be interested in hearing more about how they can
decrease the risk of failing to meet consumer wants, or being blamed for undesirable
side-effects of her company’s innovation at a later point in time.
This chapter presents the contents of the conversation that could follow. To break
down the concept of RI into practices that make sense in a business context, we rst
explore the two elements of RI, i.e. responsibility and innovation, from a business
management perspective (Sect. 2.2). We then present RI as a collection of tangible
K. Jarmai (*) · A. Tharani · C. Nwafor
Institute for Managing Sustainability, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business,
Vienna, Austria
e-mail: katharina.jarmai@wu.ac.at; adele.tharani@wu.ac.at; caroline.nwafor@wu.ac.at
8
company practices (Sect. 2.3) and introduce two companies that have already
implemented many of these practices in their own particular way (Sects. 2.3.1 and
2.3.2). To conclude, we summarize main learning about RI in a business context
(Sect. 2.4).
2.2 Dening “Responsibility” and“Innovation” inaBusiness
Context
2.2.1 Responsibility
Business responsibility towards society has a longer history in business manage-
ment literature than the idea of responsible innovation, or responsibility of science
towards society. For a long time primary responsibility of business was dened only
in economic terms– responsibility towards shareholders and the responsibility to
make prot. The discourse on the extension of business’ responsibility to stakehold-
ers and broader society can be traced back to the 1950s and 1960s (Carroll and
Shabana 2010), with scholars such as Howard R.Bowen (1953) and Peter Drucker
(1954), who discussed the moral and ethical responsibilities of a business, and as
such a business manager, towards society and the public good. The responsibility of
business towards society has carried a number of conceptualisations, including phi-
lanthropy, business ethics, corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship and
corporate sustainability (Carroll and Shabana 2010). Corporate social responsibility
(CSR) and corporate sustainability (CS) are currently the more common terms in
business practice and are showing signs of convergence (Montiel 2008), yet so far
have no xed standardised denition (Montiel and Delgado-Ceballos 2014). In
essence, business’ responsibility to society can be linked to three main theories:
stakeholder theory, social contracts theory and legitimacy theory (Moir 2001).
The concept of business responsibility has evolved from the philanthropic
approach of “giving back”, to a more strategic approach to business’ responsibility
towards society being addressed in management literature. Since the early 2000s
scholars have started to connect business’ strategic economic goals with business’
roles and responsibilities towards society, with numerous studies examining the
“business case of CSR” (Carroll and Shabana 2010). Porter and Kramer (2011)
argue that by acting responsibly and gearing a business towards responding to soci-
etal needs, business can simultaneously serve its economic and societal responsibil-
ity and introduced the idea that business is a force that can “create shared value”.
Their idea brought business responsibility from the fringes of the company to the
core of business strategy (Crane etal. 2014). Company responsibility was no longer
seen as an activity outside a company’s core operations and core competencies, but
rather as responsiveness to societal needs through creating products and services,
which became a potential avenue for business growth. One can argue that this shift
from responsibility as an afterthought to responsibility as a strategy also fuelled the
K. Jarmai et al.
9
increasing replacement of the term corporate social responsibility with corporate
sustainability. The latter signies that responding to societal needs and acting
responsibly towards people and the environment is a precondition to business
survival.
Recent years have seen a strong societal push to acknowledge that businesses’
value chains, from sourcing of raw materials to production, sales and product end-
of- life, cause impacts on people and the environment for which they are responsible.
Therefore, the European Commission, as well as other public actors, has redened
what CSR means, from a “company voluntary contribution to society”, to company
“responsibility for its impacts” on society (European Commission 2011), including
people and the environment.
With these societal pressures, the understanding and conceptualisation of
company responsibility towards society now encompasses a number of issues,
themes and business activities. Companies from a variety of sectors are being
scrutinised for their effects on people and the environment throughout their value
chains (Phillips and Caldwell 2005); extending their responsibility for impact
beyond their own operations to supply chains and product use. This includes
materials sourcing and procurement in supply chains, production, transport and
packaging, and lastly the life-cycle effects from the actual use of the product, and
its disposal or afterlife. The issues range from environmental resource use or
emissions into air, land or water, to effects on human rights, ensuring decent work
and health and safety in company production or operations, ensuring an environ-
mentally friendly afterlife of company products or even the social desirability of
a company’s products and services. Therefore, business responsibility towards
society now means both, responsible management of business operations, as well
as a business’ responsibility for the impacts of its products and services on people
and the environment. Companies globally are being expected to take responsibil-
ity for doing no harm to people or the environment, whereas the most advanced
ones are looking into strategies that drive the business through responsiveness to
societal needs.
2.2.2 Innovation
The story of innovation often begins with the economist Joseph Schumpeter
(1883–1950) and is thus deeply rooted in socio-economic theory. For Schumpeter
(1939), economic development was a dynamic process driven by the development
of novel1 combinations– innovations– which in processes of creative destruction
1 Denitions of innovation differentiate between the scopes of novelty. While Kieser (1969) denes
innovation as novelty at the level of an organization, according to Vedin (1980: 22) innovation is
“…an invention brought to its rst use, its rst introduction to the market”. Garcia and Calantone
(2002) identify six perspectives of novelty in the innovation literature current at the time: New to
the company, new to the adopting unit, new to the market, new to the industry, new to the consumer
and new to the world.
2 Responsible Innovation inBusiness
10
generate new business models. Innovation can arise in the form of a new product
formerly unknown to the consumer, but also in the form of a new quality of an
existing product. Likewise, innovation can emerge in the form of the introduction of
a new production method, an opening up of new sales markets, the development of
new sources of raw materials or a re-organization of a business already in the mar-
ket. In any form, innovation allows businesses to occupy a temporary monopoly
position, which lasts until competing businesses either successfully imitate the
innovation or gain supremacy through further or novel developments.
From an economic point of view, innovation is generally conceived as the basis
for a competitive economy (cf. Adams etal. 2006) and thus as something that is
inherently desirable in the present perception of the western industrialized world
(cf. Blok and Lemmens 2015; Moldaschl 2010). Companies pursue innovation to
develop new market segments, improve the quality of their products or reduce the
costs of production. They aim to maintain their competitive edge or improve their
position in the market through innovative products (goods and services), innova-
tive processes (production or delivery methods), innovative marketing (design,
packaging, placement, promotion, pricing) or organisational innovation (business
practices, workplace organisation, external relations). In this constant race for nov-
elty and improvement only those that constantly reinvent themselves and their
products can win. An innovation’s success is, however, measured in terms of its
uptake on the market and its generation of economic prot for the owner of the
innovation. Societal benet may arise as positive externalities of innovation, but
are not per-se decisive for action. In this way, innovations can be a source of income
for the innovation owner and at the same time lead to job losses, or cause short- or
long-term environmental, health or safety issues that may or may not become
apparent at the time of the innovation’s introduction to the market. This fact has
found its countermovement in approaches to substitute solutions on the market
with more eco- friendly, more sustainable or more socially desirable ones (see
Chaps. 3and 4 for an introduction to these types of innovation), and thus combine
the pursuit of competitiveness with a normative requirement to reduce harm to
people and the natural environment.
Innovation management in companies is mostly concerned with creating fruitful
environments for new ideas, and deciding which of these ideas will be pursued fur-
ther and which are to be discarded. This means that not every new idea will neces-
sarily turn into, or lead to, innovation2. It also means that innovation management is
constantly concerned with creating opportunities for innovation through the formu-
lation of new ideas, and destroying opportunities for innovation by discarding a
large proportion of these ideas before they reach the market, or even the develop-
2 Different authors consider different events as decisive for dening innovation: According to
Roberts (1987), innovation takes place when an introduction to the market is followed by com-
mercial exploitation, application, diffusion and further development; an innovation needs to be
successful on the market and create value in order to earn the name. Brockhoff (1992), in contrast,
considers market entry to be sufcient criterion for product or process innovation; irrespective of
its level of commercial success.
K. Jarmai et al.
11
ment phase. Management literature has extensively discussed approaches to estab-
lishing an innovation culture within an organization, the pros and cons of involving
company external actors and the selection process of one idea over another. These
discussions are too versatile to be reproduced in this chapter. It should be noted,
however, that decisions to pursue one idea and discard another are generally taken
under high levels of uncertainty about potential success. The higher the dynamics in
a particular market and the more radical3 the innovation, the higher the levels of
uncertainty will be. Well-known management approaches to decrease uncertainty
through utilising information from company-external sources include open innova-
tion, user innovation and innovation communities (Fichter 2009; Chesbrough etal.
2006; Gassmann and Enkel 2004; von Hippel 1986).
In contrast to a few decades ago, today a company can fall back on various meth-
ods to support both the idea generation process as well as the selection of ideas for
further development. Many of these methods have been developed by companies
and now nd their way into both the practitioner and academic literatures. These
range from “classic” methods such as brainstorming to more recent development
such as design thinking, the “innovation sprint” (cf. e.g. Ma and Morris 2017), or
gaming approaches.
2.3 How Should Companies Be(come) Responsible inTheir
Innovation Activities?
Once an entrepreneur’s interest in responsible innovation has been stirred, they will
probably have two pressing questions: ‘What exactly do I need to do?’ and ‘What’s
in it for me and my business?’ Innovation is usually closely connected to the core
business of a company, and different companies operate under different conditions
(depending on e.g. business model, size, product and contextual factors such as
legal frameworks or sector dynamics), so there are no universally valid answers to
these questions. It is, however, possible to describe a general process to develop a
tailored RI strategy and point out resources that companies can rely on. The follow-
ing ve steps provide guidance to a company wishing to engage with RI:
1. Understand what responsible innovation is all about. While you may not have
heard of the concept of responsible innovation, your company may already be
doing things that fall under the concept of RI.You can gure out in which areas
of your operations RI might be particularly important, nd out what your current
strengths are, and what action you may want to take. One way to self-assess your
3 While incremental innovations are born along existing paths of (technological) development and
improve the performance of existing products or processes, radical innovations are disruptive in
their nature and create path changes. Radical innovation is generally followed by a multitude of
incremental innovations, and often by organisational or societal changes (cf. e.g. Utterback 1996).
2 Responsible Innovation inBusiness
12
company is using the COMPASS online self-check tool4. Another way is reect-
ing together with a responsible innovation expert.
2. Reect on the expected benets of responsible innovation. The implementa-
tion of RI will take time, may require additional investments and will likely
require changes in company practices. It could result in the (re-)denition of
company values, goals or collaboration patterns. It might even affect the com-
pany’s business model, if people realize that core business activities are not in
line with the objectives of RI.A company will only invest in these efforts if a
particular added value can be expected. This added value can be measured in
terms of e.g. improving customer relationships, pro-actively meeting expected
future regulation, or increasing the company’s positive impact on society. This
will differ between sectors, regions and individual companies. The crucial point
is to understand what pursuing RI may yield and what the company is willing to
invest to this end.
3. Establish management and employee commitment. To ensure that time and
money is allocated to employees’ engagement with RI, and that practices are
actually implemented, both top management as well as employees need to com-
mit to pursuing RI.Such commitment can, for example, be facilitated through
inclusive development of a company Code of Conduct that respects RI (see Sect.
2.3.2), or providing employees with training in RI.
4. Develop an action plan for development/adaptation of practices. Once a
company has a clear idea of where it stands, and commits to making a step
towards RI, an action plan can be developed. First, identify contextual factors
that will likely shape your company’s working context, potential markets, soci-
etal trends, workforce and collaborations in the middle- to longer-term future.
Then identify practices and milestones, and specify responsibilities and dead-
lines. Potentially, you could develop indicators and procedures for monitoring
progress. If you already apply suitable methods for taking these steps in your
company, make use of those. If you are not familiar with any suitable methods,
you could utilize e.g. the COMPASSco-creation method kit5 or procure the ser-
vices of a consultant or facilitator.
5. Stay focused on the objective of responsible innovation. Different aspects of
RI will seem more relevant than others, depending on the company and the con-
text it operates in. Some practices will be more intriguing in terms of expected
added value. Nevertheless, it is important to implement practices that are the
most important and critical in that sector, and which cover different aspects of RI
4 The COMPASSself-check tool allows companies to nd out what they already do that qualies
as responsible innovation and what they could do to improve their responsible innovation perfor-
mance. All proposed practices are entirely within company control and can be put into practice
one-by-one or in combination. The tool has been available free of charge at https://innovation-
compass.eu/self-check/ since March 2019.
5 The COMPASS co-creation method kit provides detailed instructions on how to conduct (a) a
forward-looking exercise to identify future relevant company context and important responsible
innovation practices and (b) a back casting exercise to develop an actionable roadmap for the com-
pany. It has been publicly available at https://innovation-compass.eu/method-kit/ since March 2019.
K. Jarmai et al.
13
to keep pursuing the overall objective, which is to increase positive societal
impact and minimize actual and potential negative impact to the highest degree
possible. Keep re-evaluating your company practices and adapting your action
plan at regular intervals to respond to changing contextual factors, technological
advances and company developments.
The next two sections of this chapter present two companies that have success-
fully completed these ve steps towards responsible innovation6. The two good
practice examples hint at the variety of ways in which RI can be implemented in
companies. One of them details the various practices that a nanotechnology com-
pany has introduced to ensure that all of its research and innovation processes and
products exceed the requirements of RI, the other demonstrates how a cyber security
company relies on the principles of RI to inform their decision-making processes.
2.3.1 Good Practice Example 1: Responsible Innovation
asaBusiness Model7
Applied Nanoparticles SL (AppNps) was founded in 2013, arising as a spin-off
company from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), the Institut Català de
Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), and the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and
Nanotechnology (ICN2), with the goal to base the research and development of
nanoparticles on Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) principles. AppNps’s
main product is BioGAS+, which is an additive based on iron nanoparticles directed
to the optimisation of anaerobic digestion processes. The main aim of BioGAS+ is
to transform waste into appealing raw materials in an efcient and sustainable way.
AppNps’s company structure exhibits several features that demonstrate its com-
mitment to the principles of responsible innovation. There is a collective ownership
of the company without an explicit CEO.Employees are involved in decision- making
with the objective of keeping the company diverse and robust; and to ensure that the
initial aims of the company are preserved. This is what AppNps refers to with their
slogan “a company in the making”. Their second slogan, “a company with purpose”,
refers to the collectively agreed upon vision to become a role model in terms of
responsible innovation and nanoparticles. Aware of the need for communication
between science and society for a smooth introduction of nanotechnology in society,
AppNps is a strong advocate of science education and a pronounced stakeholder
6 Both cases were developed according to the requirements of Sage Business Cases (http://sk.sage-
pub.com/cases) and will be published in 2020. Each case consists of an introduction to nanotech-
nology or cyber security, respectively, an introduction to responsible innovation, the case, expected
learning outcomes and discussion questions. Both cases are further accompanied by a teaching
note that describes teaching objectives, target audience, suggested teaching strategy and suggested
answers to the discussion questions.
7 The complete case study is available athttps://innovation-compass.eu/training/cases/
2 Responsible Innovation inBusiness
14
dialogue. Efforts to act responsibly are further implemented through implementation
of safety and health regulations that go beyond compliance and employee’s educa-
tion on nanotoxicity and nanosafety. On the whole, AppNps continually monitors
that actions are directed to seek social, economic and environmental sustainability.
AppNps constantly need to balance scientic and commercial interests and
tackle the challenge of involving society in a way that benets both society and the
company. The company is willing to engage themselves with ethical dilemmas,
such as the ethical dimension of growing crops when this could potentially affect
food security negatively. These questions require AppNps to constantly reect and
re-evaluate its values and strategies.
2.3.2 Good Practice Example 2: Responsible Innovation
asaDecision Support System8
Yoti9 is a London-based information technology company which was founded in
2014. It employed over 200 people in 2018 and has ofces in India, the US and
Canada. Yoti brings together the advance in biometric technologies and an
increased smartphone usage to create a digital identity solution that allows online
users to prove who they are without compromising their privacy. More speci-
cally, the main company product in an app that combines biometric information
with a government- issued identity document (passport, driving license, etc.). The
app was launched in 2017 and was downloaded more than 1.5 million times
within the rst half year. The Yoti app is benecial both for organisations– to
verify online and in person who people are– and for individuals– to prove their
age or identity with their smartphone.
Yoti aims to have a positive impact on society and has the goal to become the
world’s most trusted identity platform. The rm is well aware of the responsibility
that goes along with handling personal data and thus considers data responsibility to
be a core strategy of the business model. This is achieved by asking users to provide
only a minimal amount of data in the rst place and by implementing a system that
encrypts and stores the data separately, so that only the individual users can tie
together all the data. Moreover, Yoti has put several principles in place to ensure a
maximum amount of transparency and consumer trust. These principles include
continually considering the rm’s impact on users, employees, suppliers, partners
and the environment; providing a digital identity to anyone for free; and disclosing
terms and conditions in a transparent way. To watch over the compliance with these
8 As acyber security B Corporation based intheUK, Yoti wasinvited toparticipate intheCOMPASS
project in 2017. Yoti was highly active in co-creating the Responsible Innovation roadmap
forcyber security, andhas since been inclose contact withtheCOMPASS Consortium foradvice
onquestions related toethics and transparency, andtospread word about data trust andsecurity
issues.
9 https://www.yoti.com/
K. Jarmai et al.
15
principles, Yoti has installed a “Guardian Council”10. The principles are practically
applied by an intense stakeholder collaboration, an engagement with digital policy,
digital identity and data protection advocates and by committing to standards
beyond legal requirements.
Inherent to the collection and storage of data there are multiple challenges. First
and foremost, this is the issue of data privacy. In contrast, from a perfect privacy of
user data arises the possible implication of facilitating illegal activity. Minimizing
the risk of criminal misuse while maintaining data security is a major challenge that
has been tackled in an extensive dialogue with human rights and consumer rights
experts.
2.4 Chapter Conclusions
Responsible innovation, albeit born in the public policy realm and to date adopted
primarily by research institutions, is highly complementary to the broad concept of
business responsibility towards society. From the process dimension it allows the
extension of the concept of responsible business management to research and develop-
ment (R&D) departments, and guides businesses in how to make their R&D more
responsible and responsive to societal needs. Traditional approaches to CSR have not
as yet extensively considered the R&D stage as a crucial one in which responsibility
aspects should be integrated and considered. Furthermore, from an outcomes perspec-
tive, innovation and R&D intensive rms, especially those whose customers are inter-
mediaries and not the ones who will use the product or service, have not often
considered how their innovations affect society. They may have looked at their sourc-
ing and manufacturing process but paid less attention to what effects may be caused for
people or the environment once their products or services are utilised. With the RI
concept, these considerations of the effects on society and how to best serve to society
enter the R&D functions in companies. The concept is also promising in addressing the
core business responsibility for companies in sectors that are innovation-intensive.
While innovation itself has no normative orientation, some companies have
made it part of their strategies or business models to innovate in order to reduce the
negative impacts of their products or services on people and/or the environment. As
an innovation management strategy, responsible innovation can be understood as a
measure to reduce the risks of innovation failing to meet consumer wants, missing
out on potential markets, or costly adaptations or roll-back at late points in the inno-
vation process, while simultaneously increasing public credibility, legitimacy and
trust of the company and its innovative products or services. All of which corre-
spond to making innovative businesses more competitive.
The examples of AppNps and Yoti show that businesses can develop their own
approaches and work out RI practices that suit them in their particular contexts.
10 https://www.yoti.com/about/council/
2 Responsible Innovation inBusiness
16
Even though the two companies are vastly different, and the key issues of responsi-
bility in their innovation processes are also different, both AppNps and Yoti have,
(1) understood what RI in their specic context is and what are the most critical
elements to address; (2) reected on the potential benets of RI for their specic
case; (3) established management and employee commitment to RI; (4) established
an action plan and roadmap to RI.The companies have in common a basic interest
in creating positive societal impact. They both want to go beyond what is legally
required of them in terms of safety, security or ethical issues. They want to play an
active role in shaping the regulatory environment for their current and future busi-
ness undertakings. Even though, like any other small enterprise, personnel time is
among their scarcest resources, they invest time and effort into deliberation within
and beyond company boundaries and into putting new practices and routines into
place. Even though there are no numbers (yet) to predict a monetary return on these
investments, both companies are committed to traveling this path and reaping eco-
nomic prots based on the principles of responsible innovation.
Rather than implementing a top-down initiated policy concept, RI in companies
concerns company values, innovation practices and interaction with consumers and
other external stakeholders. If we accept that the RI concept is currently not tailored
towards businesses, but that businesses are willing to implement elements of RI
once they understand the benets for their own business strategy as well as towards
society, then a promising manner to approach implementation would be to build on
what businesses are already doing– either individually or in sectoral initiatives–
and provide them with information as well as with tools to explore other aspects of
RI.Implementation strategies are highly likely to vary between sectors, application
areas or even between individual businesses. Learning from “responsible innovation
pioneers” among peers can constitute an important rst step towards understanding
how RI can be made operational in a business context.
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2 Responsible Innovation inBusiness
... Responsible innovation plays an important role in considering the economic, social and environmental performance of the enterprise, taking into account the need to increase profit and create social value (Tian & Tian, 2021). As an innovation management strategy, responsible innovation should be understood as the reduction of risks of non-satisfaction with the company's consumers' needs, possible loss of potential markets, and costly adaptation of innovative products by increasing the level of consumer confidence (Jarmai et al., 2020). ...
... Bakhta also believes that introducing responsible innovation helps to increase competitiveness (Bahta et al., 2020). And Jarmai asserts that introducing responsible innovations in the activities of companies increases consumer confidence in goods or services, which helps to increase competitiveness (Jarmai et al., 2020). ...
... The obtained indicators mean that the introduction of responsible innovations in the company has a positive effect on the society. The authors of another study (Jarmai et al., 2020) claim that responsible innovations should be developed for the positive impact of the company on society. Long (Long et al., 2020) The fourth hypothesis (H4) is to determine the influence of responsible innovations on the economic efficiency of the enterprise. ...
Article
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The subject of the article is to study the impact of responsible innovations on the activities of small and medium-sized enterprises in the EU. This study presents the following hypotheses about the impact of responsible innovation on the transformation, competitiveness and economic efficiency of enterprises, as well as society and the state. To collect data and test the hypotheses, a survey of SMEs in EU countries was conducted. The questionnaires filled out by managers and owners of 259 enterprises in various industries and with different forms of ownership were analyzed. Next, a factor analysis was conducted, and the proposed hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. As a result, it can be argued that the introduction of responsible innovations has a positive impact on the transformation processes, the level of competitiveness of the enterprise, economic efficiency, social processes and government regulation. Therefore, enterprises should pay attention to the development and implementation of appropriate strategies for responsible innovation, as this will have a positive impact on their activities.
... Potential is identified in terms of leveraging responsibility as business strategy, business case, and decision support systems. RI as business strategy (Jarmai et al., 2020) requires to (1) understand most critical elements to address (2) reflect case-specific on potential benefits, (3) establish management and employee commitment, and (4) establish plans and roadmaps. As middle management and employees have been found (ibid.) to have deeper understanding on the functioning of RRI in industry than upper management (as they are often subjects of study), they may be viable points of entry for increasing the attractiveness of RI in companies. ...
... innovation (RI) in industry, responsible innovation calls for a wide range of new corporate practices of responsible innovation activities from legal and ethical aspects to leadership, business models, roles, and responsibilities to generate broader societal impacts.Jarmai et al. (2020) frame responsible innovation (RI) as collection of tangible company practices which points towards responsibility as a strategy. This approach includes both being responsible in their innovation activities / processes (operations & increasingly value chain) as well as being responsive to societal needs by creating products and services. ...
Technical Report
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EU approval still pending. The major general target for REINFORCING is to empower EU institutions and territories to make tangible and long-term progress in the implementation of ORRI to steer the Green Deal and fair transition’s governance. The REINFORCING vision is that institutions and projects with different levels of expertise can easily interact with other actors, learn from peers, and receive the support they need to take concrete steps in their journey to ORRI implementation. For this purpose, among other objectives, the REINFORCING project aims to create a virtual platform which will function as a One-Stop Source (OSS) for Open and Responsible Research and Innovation (ORRI) related tools, resources, and practices in Europe. The deliverable at hand serves these targets by reviewing current implementation of RRI principles, identifying existing gaps in ORRI implementation, and developing a taxonomy for the organisation of the OSS platform. For these purposes, we conducted a scoping review on relevant literature, based on thematic interests, to explore the field of ORRI to identify the state of art in terms of its implementation across Europe and finding gaps in its implementation. This was done by consulting selected experts and by searching for literature in various databases. In addition to the scoping review of relevant literature, we completed a review of 201 EU-funded projects related to ORRI. The third data source were the semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted with 19 ORRI experts, mainly including thought leaders and practitioners in the field of ORRI (researchers, representatives of firms and policymakers). Integration of ORRI principles into research and broader institutional contexts requires adaptation and innovative approaches. As some of the major elements of ORRI are anticipation of social and environmental impacts of research and innovation (RI) as well as engagement of stakeholders and citizens in the process to democratise it, foresight and anticipatory governance are introduced as promising tools bearing an array of reflexive-anticipatory heuristics and facilitating a more democratic development of science, technology, and innovation endeavours. At the same time, efforts at establishing foresight and anticipatory governance always need to be contextualised within the specific socio-political landscapes and require critical self-reflection: anticipatory governance may facilitate openness in innovation processes and the future development of socio-technical systems, or function as instrumental legitimization for predetermined normative milestones. ORRI needs to become a permanent practice in organisations to have a sustainable impact on R&I processes. Therefore, the deliverable discusses institutionalisation understood as a process of becoming a permanent part of a society, system, or organisation (Cambridge dictionary on-line). These questions are enlightened from the theoretical perspectives of neo-institutionalism, institutional entrepreneurship, and deep institutionalisation. While these approaches help to understand various aspects of institutionalisation processes, some of the practical conclusions are that the focus should be on tangible activities on the organisational level, and on building relevant linkages to sustainability and social responsibility-related policies, that can provide support for various ORRI activities. ORRI is always situated in some specific context in which research and innovation occur which emphasises the need to tailor ethical, societal, and environmental considerations to these contexts. The deliverable focuses especially on organisational and territorial perspectives because they provide the institutional frameworks, resources, and collaborative platforms necessary to integrate ethical, societal, and environmental considerations into research and innovation processes. Some of the major observations include the complex nature of designing and implementing responsibility-related initiatives arising from intertwined local and global challenges, conflicting stakeholder demands, and a lack of implementation support. It can also be noted that despite many attempts and initiatives, also promoted and supported by the EU Commission, the operationalization of RRI in firms and regional policies is still in its infancy. Practical implementation takes place alongside territorial and organisational processes in a wider policy landscape consisting of global and societal grand challenges. Therefore, the deliverable also discusses mission-oriented research and innovation policy, open science, and public engagement in R&I and R&I democratisation. Mission-oriented research and innovation policy is thought to provide a framework for addressing societal and environmental concerns. Similarly, open science appears to be contributing to an acceleration of research on global challenges, while empowering citizen participation and promoting equity and inclusivity. Public Engagement in R&I and R&I democratisation are considered important as they enhance, for instance, relevance and responsiveness in scientific research and innovation as well as foster trust in science. In WP1, the REINFORCING Consortium has also conducted a gap analysis of the topics which have been less addressed or require more attention in the implementation of ORRI. As a general observation, actors interested in implementing ORRI approaches need to achieve systemic changes in society towards responsibility, sustainability, and transparency by acting as mediators, enablers, facilitators, and institutional entrepreneurs. To this end, practical tools and approaches are needed. Following the review and analysis, the final part of the deliverable presents a two-dimensional taxonomy for structuring the OSS platform for ORRI.
... While many existing RI approaches focus on the moral engagement of the researchers themselves, in a business environment they are bound to have limited power and authority to implement the principles of RI. For instance, important decisions about what to research, how much resources to spend on research and in what way, and when to bring a product to the market are made at the managers' level (Jarmai, Tharani, and Nwafor 2020). Furthermore, in the classical agency theory, managers tend to represent the interests of the shareholders (Jensen and Meckling 2019). ...
... The ordinary consumers will not, since they do not find this product more valuable, only more costly or expensive. 10. Jarmai, Tharani, and Nwafor (2020) show how some companies employ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies without fulfilling any requirements for any indicators. ...
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In this paper, we use an economic approach to demonstrate why ‘rational’ businesses are not likely to implement responsible innovation (RI) unless it is economically profitable. The lack of sufficient insights into economic impacts of RI is often induced by information asymmetry. Such asymmetry would hinder consumers who would otherwise be willing to pay higher prices for products or services that are assumed to be associated with RI from actually paying a higher price. We consider the introduction of a certification scheme of RI that would act as a signaling proxy to reduce information asymmetry thereby help increase economic benefits of RI implementation that can further lead to firm profitability. Furthermore, we argue that certification can help facilitate the more effective spread of RI in the business sector by broadening the focus to include not only the ethical engagement of researchers/innovators but also the profit motives of the company.
... A felelősségteljes innováció szakirodalmát illetően elmozdulás tapasztalható az akadémiai K+F+I együttműködésektől a vállalati szektor irányába. Bár a felelősségteljes innováció alkalmazása főként az akadémiai szférában terjedt el, a vállalati közegben is egyre nagyobb hangsúlyt kap a megközelítés (Jarmai, Tharani, Nwafor 2020;Lubberink et al. 2017). ...
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Az elmúlt évtizedben a felelősségteljes kutatás és innováció (Responsible Research and Innovation: RRI) koncepcióját sikeresen alkalmazták néhány fejlett országban. Nagyon keveset tudunk ugyanakkor az RRI alkalmazási lehetőségeiről és hatékonyságáról a kevésbé fejlett posztszocialista országokban. Az RRI gyakorlati bevezetésére szolgáló egyik módszer, a Társadalmi-Technikai Integrációs Kutatás (Socio-Technical Integration Research: STIR) hozzájárulhat a kutatás-fejlesztési és innovációs folyamatok lehetséges negatív következményeinek hatékony kezeléséhez, elősegítve ezzel a felelősségteljes innováció érvényre jutását. Hazai STIR pilot kutatások rámutattak arra, hogy az innovációs közeg jelentős hatással lehet a STIR hatékonyságára. Ezért kutatásomban a posztszocialista innovációs környezet sajátosságaihoz igazított STIR folyamatot hét posztszocialista országban teszteltem. Az adaptált megközelítést öt akadémiai hét üzleti kutatási szervezetben alkalmaztam. Tanulmányomban arra a kérdésre keresem a választ, hogy a STIR módszertan segítségével miként mozdítható elő a felelősségteljes innováció tudatos és széles körű alkalmazása posztszocialista innovációs környezetben, az akadémiai és az üzleti szektorban egyaránt. Kutatásom rávilágít arra, hogy az adaptált STIR folyamat sikeresen alkalmazható posztszocialista innovációs környezetben. A kutatás során javultak az együttműködés feltételei a résztvevők körében. Növekedett továbbá a résztvevők tudatossága, alternatív döntési lehetőségeket mérlegelő képessége. Végezetül, számos pozitív változást azonosítottam a döntéshozatal gyakorlatában. Ugyanakkor az is világossá vált, hogy a módszertan további finomításra szorul a szélesebb körű alkalmazhatóság és a nagyobb hatás elérése érdekében.
... Second, process requirements alone cannot guide the work of those who ideate and develop new products and services: innovators and entrepreneurs must be capable of appraising, prioritizing, and materializing substantive responsibility characteristics (van de Poel et al., 2020). Third, the production of responsible products and services ultimately remains under the authority of an organization that may or may not be governed responsibly (Jarmai et al., 2020). ...
Article
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Although various scholars underscore the importance of innovating responsibly in view of today's societal challenges, less attention has been paid to the entrepreneurial skillset, that is, the range of individual skills and organizational capabilities, that innovation‐based organizations mobilize to deliver new responsible products and services. This paper thus explores the relationships between the entrepreneurial skillsets of 16 Canadian and Brazilian for‐profit and not‐for‐profit organizations producing Responsible Innovations in Health (RIH) and their degree of responsibility. Our mixed methods study includes interviews with entrepreneurs ( n = 23) and fieldnotes as well as quantitative results from the RIH Assessment Tool. Our findings identify four skillset orientations—Technical, Technical + Business, Social, and Social + Business—that not only reflect (co)founders' training and entrepreneurial motivations but also a proclivity toward the consolidation of either “Technical” or “Social” skills and capabilities. Such consolidation is made possible by recruiting high‐level executives with diverse backgrounds or by tapping on external knowledge sources (e.g., boards of directors, incubators, or volunteers). As five enterprises had no formal business skills, patterns associated to their overall RIH score (ranging from 1 to 5) reveal intriguing results. Organizations with a Social + Business skillset have a slightly lower RIH score (4.1) than those with a Social skillet (4.4) and those with a Technical + Business skillset have a slightly higher score (3.5) than those with a Technical skillset (3.0). The presence of business skills thus appears to mediate the relationship between entrepreneurial skillsets and the degree of responsibility, which may be linked to the distinct roles of ordinary (“doing things right”) and dynamic capabilities (“doing the right things”). These exploratory findings have scholarly and practical implications. First, the tensions and synergies characterizing responsible value creation should be approached by examining the complementary skills and capabilities that need to be assembled and consolidated. Second, the eight cases with a Social + Business skillset clarify the unique capabilities needed to produce highly responsible health innovations. Third, entrepreneurs with a scientific or engineering background should recognize that a Technical skillset is not enough. Fourth, recognizing that “falling in love with the cause” of RIH is not sufficient, investors and boards of directors should adequately support responsible entrepreneurs towards the proper orchestration of skills and capabilities that can reconcile economic and social goals.
... In recent decades, globalisation, climate change, and other grand societal challenges have made regional industrial development even more intrusive . Furthermore, businesses are increasingly expected to respond to societal needs beyond the shareholders, and to involve also stakeholders and society as a whole, by taking responsibility for their activities and impact (von Schomberg 2019; Jarmai et al. 2020). Academic authors of responsible innovation (RI) literature have argued that RI requires more than the isolated actions of individual actors and should include the broader innovation system and its institutions (Stilgoe et al. 2013). ...
Article
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The article aims to broaden the understanding of barriers to regional industrial development by focusing on the use and modification of the regional asset base. The authors employ Maskell & Malmberg’s categorisation of assets and they regard asset modification through change agency as a vital part of regional industrial development. They aim both to complement Grabher’s ‘lock-in’ approach and to provide a wider understanding of how barriers can be lowered through their empirical investigation of two specialised regions in Norway, Stavanger and Grenland. The authors address three research questions: What are historically created key regional assets in the two specialised regions? Do the assets function as support or barriers to green path development? If they are barriers, what are key agencies for lowering them? The findings demonstrate that the regional asset base functions both as support and as a barrier. To lower the barriers, both asset reuse and asset creation are deployed by actors in the region. The authors conclude that the article’s two main contributions are that with regard to the regional asset base, a relevant framework can identify possible barriers to regional industrial development, and the finding that barriers can be lowered through asset modification.
... However, the current definition of corporate responsible innovation is not tailored to enterprises. For businessoriented enterprises, their responsible innovation should be rooted in the ecological environment they rely on (Long et al., 2020;Wiarda et al., 2021) and based on what enterprises are already doing (Katharina et al., 2020). Therefore, we believe that corporate responsible innovation is inevitably embedded in the network of social development. ...
Article
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Responsible innovation has been widely concerned by the public sector and actively explored by scholars for its great role in supporting eco-innovation and sustainable development. However, as the main body of innovation, enterprises have not been fully recognized. Moreover, the research on the driving factors of responsible innovation is mostly the direct influence of a single factor, lacking the overall consideration of the internal and external environment. To bridge this research gap, this study, by deeply interviewing 13 entrepreneurs in environmental protection enterprises, clarified the concept of corporate responsible innovation and its four-dimensional framework (inclusion, anticipation, reflexivity, responsiveness), and then proposed the MPN-MSE driving factor model of corporate responsible innovation from the internal and external perspectives. The external factors include market pressure (M), policy pressure (P), and normative pressure (N), while the internal factors include responsible innovation motivation (M), responsible innovation system (S), and responsible innovation elements (E). The research findings provide an important theoretical contribution to the research of corporate responsible innovation.
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Війна вкрай негативно вплинула на всю економіку України, в тому числі й на логістику міжнародних перевезень. Але без якісної та сучасної логістичної інфраструктури повноцінне повоєнне відновлення виробничого сектору неможливо. Закриття аеропортів, блокада морських портів стали причиною пошуку альтернативних логістичних схем доставки
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As empresas estão enfrentando um ambiente de negócios cada vez mais complexo e dinâmico, recorrendo à inovação como alternativa para elevar sua capacidade competitiva. No entanto, a emergência de novas tecnologias e a mudança para um novo modelo de desenvolvimento econômico, que combina aspectos econômico-financeiros com perspectivas socialmente responsáveis e ambientalmente conscientes, tem gerado desafios acima da capacidade de resposta destas empresas. O problema reside em como se ajustar às novas realidades, rápida e assertivamente. Estudos recentes apontam que as empresas precisam incrementar a aprendizagem organizacional para desenvolver capacidade de inovação, agora não mais sob parâmetros tradicionais, mas, adotando novos modelos, como a inovação responsável. Este estudo tem o objetivo de apontar fatores determinantes para que, concomitantemente, iniciativas de aprendizagem organizacional e desenvolvimento de capacidade de inovação possam facilitar a inserção da inovação responsável em seus processos. Trata-se de um estudo qualitativo e exploratório, que contou com uma revisão da literatura científica que trata dos conceitos de aprendizagem organizacional, capacidade de inovação e inovação responsável. Os resultados mostram que aprendizagem organizacional e desenvolvimento de capacidade de inovação podem facilitar a implementação da inovação responsável no processo inovativo de empresas, contribuindo para a transição ao modelo de desenvolvimento responsável e sustentável. Esta implementação pode garantir maior capacidade competitiva, diferenciando os produtos e serviços ofertados pelas empresas no mercado, além de se alinhar às novas demandas de stakeholders, principalmente, colaboradores e consumidores atentos às novas realidades tecnológicas e socioambientais.
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Research on responsible innovation (RI) is essential and effective for developed countries to achieve sustainable development goals; however, RI is still relatively undiscussed in the emerging Asia–Pacific markets. With the rapid development of big data-related technologies and their application, digital platforms have become a dominant organisational form in the current industrial practice; SMEs have had to conduct digital transformation and realise value creation by embedding the platform ecosystem. However, this has given rise to irresponsible innovation practices. Few studies have investigated the implementation or realisation of RI in emerging market platforms. As the core of RI for the SMEs embedded in the platform is the ecosystem view, which contemplates multiple actors engaging in value co-creation, different from a single actor in existing studies, the sustainable development performance of SMEs is one of the best evidence of the overall RI realisation of the whole platform ecosystem. On the basis of these discussions, we construct a core theoretical model and combine it with existing literature and theories, mainly with RI, dynamic capabilities theory, and neo-institutional theory. We empirically analyse 268 Chinese SMEs embedded in the platform. The results reveal that the data-driven dynamic capabilities of SMEs can become the key driving force in improving their sustainable development performance, thus guiding the platform enterprises’ RI quality. In addition, digital regulatory pressure and digital customer pressure exert a significant positive moderating effect on the association between RI quality and sustainable development performance, which may be closely related to the infantile stage of SMEs’ digital transformation in emerging Asia–Pacific markets.
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In this chapter, we challenge the presupposed concept of innovation in the responsible innovation literature. As a first step, we raise several questions with regard to the possibility of ‘responsible’ innovation and point at several difficulties which undermine the supposedly responsible character of innovation processes, based on an analysis of the input, throughput and output of innovation processes. It becomes clear that the practical applicability of the concept of responsible innovation is highly problematic and that a more thorough inquiry of the concept is required. As a second step, we analyze the concept of innovation which is self-evidently presupposed in current literature on responsible innovation. It becomes clear that innovation is self-evidently seen as 1) technological innovation, 2) is primarily perceived from an economic perspective, 3) is inherently good and 4) presupposes a symmetry between moral agents and moral addressees. By challenging this narrow and uncritical concept of innovation, we contribute to a second round of theorizing about the concept and provide a research agenda for future research in order to enhance a less naïve concept of responsible innovation.
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This literature review article aims to bring a better understanding to the field of corporate sustainability (CS) as studied by management scholars. The first part of this review quantifies the amount of research devoted to CS and related topics such as corporate social responsibility, corporate social performance, environmental strategies and environmental performance from 1995 through 2013. The authors then summarize the different definitions, organizational theories, and measures that have been adopted by management scholars working in the CS field in both academic and practitioner management journals. The results show that the CS field is still evolving and different approaches to define, theorize, and measure CS have been used. Differences are also found between the literature that targets scholars versus the one targeting practitioners. The authors also provide a set of recommendations on how to advance the CS field.
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This article critiques Porter and Kramer's concept of creating shared value. The strengths of the idea are highlighted in terms of its popularity among practitioner and academic audiences, its connecting of strategy and social goals, and its systematizing of some previously underdeveloped, disconnected areas of research and practice. However, the concept suffers from some serious shortcomings, namely: it is unoriginal; it ignores the tensions inherent to responsible business activity; it is naïve about business compliance; and it is based on a shallow conception of the corporation's role in society. [Michael Porter and Mark Kramer were invited to respond to this article. Their commentary follows along with a reply by Crane and his co-authors.] © 2014 by The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
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There have long been conflicting expectations of the nature of companies’ responsibilities to society. However, for those businesses that do undertake what might be termed “corporate social responsibility”, what is actually socially responsible behaviour as opposed to management of corporate image management or other activity aimed predominantly at business benefits? This article reviews definitions of corporate social responsibility from both practice and the literature and looks at theories to explain why such behaviour takes place. The literature has strong divides between normative or ethical actions and instrumental activities. The article concludes by posing the question of when instrumental activities become business activities rather than largely social responsibility.
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This article reviews the different definitions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate sustainability (CS) used over time to reveal points of difference and congruence between the two terms. Management literature uses both CSR and CS to refer to social and environmental management issues, but there is no clear distinction between the two terms. First, the author quantifies the articles published about CSR and CS in both general management and specialized journals. Second, the author summarizes the different CSR- and CS-related definitions to identify the definitional differences between CSR and CS. Finally, the author identifies opportunities to reshape a rapidly changing field by enhancing collaboration among scholars devoted to studying CSR and CS issues.
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In this review, the primary subject is the ‘business case’ for corporate social responsibility (CSR). The business case refers to the underlying arguments or rationales supporting or documenting why the business community should accept and advance the CSR ‘cause’. The business case is concerned with the primary question: What do the business community and organizations get out of CSR? That is, how do they benefit tangibly from engaging in CSR policies, activities and practices? The business case refers to the bottom-line financial and other reasons for businesses pursuing CSR strategies and policies. In developing this business case, the paper first provides some historical background and perspective. In addition, it provides a brief discussion of the evolving understandings of CSR and some of the long-established, traditional arguments that have been made both for and against the idea of business assuming any responsibility to society beyond profit-seeking and maximizing its own financial well-being. Finally, the paper addresses the business case in more detail. The goal is to describe and summarize what the business case means and to review some of the concepts, research and practice that have come to characterize this developing idea.
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Measurement of the process of innovation is critical for both practitioners and academics, yet the literature is characterized by a diversity of approaches, prescriptions and practices that can be confusing and contradictory. Conceptualized as a process, innovation measurement lends itself to disaggregation into a series of separate studies. The consequence of this is the absence of a holistic framework covering the range of activities required to turn ideas into useful and marketable products. We attempt to address this gap by reviewing the literature pertaining to the measurement of innovation management at the level of the firm. Drawing on a wide body of literature, we first develop a synthesized framework of the innovation management process consisting of seven categories: inputs management, knowledge management, innovation strategy, organizational culture and structure, portfolio management, project management and commercialization. Second, we populate each category of the framework with factors empirically demonstrated to be significant in the innovation process, and illustrative measures to map the territory of innovation management measurement. The review makes two important contributions. First, it takes the difficult step of incorporating a vastly diverse literature into a single framework. Second, it provides a framework against which managers can evaluate their own innovation activity, explore the extent to which their organization is nominally innovative or whether or not innovation is embedded throughout their organization, and identify areas for improvement.
Chapter
THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM is under siege. In recent years business increasingly has been viewed as a major cause of social, environmental, and economic problems. Companies are widely perceived to be prospering at the expense of the broader community.