Innovating Responsibly—Challenges and Future Research Agendas

Abstract

Innovation involves creating value from ideas, but this raises the question of for whom is the value created? Especially when there is growing recognition of global challenges such as poverty, inequality, aging population or availability of quality healthcare [1], responsible research and innovation (RRI) is suggested to govern innovation development. The core principles of RRI suggest broader stakeholder inclusion during the decisionmaking process, the anticipation of societal needs and reflection of concerns and a capacity to build flexibility into innovation wherever possible [2–4]. Aligning with these principles calls for new innovation policies [5,6] without which there may be problems; in particular the failure of institutions to include all layers of society into decision-making processes can lead to a sense of an individual powerlessness. While Sustainability 2021, 13, 3215. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063215 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Sustainability 2021, 13, 3215 2 of 6 several researchers claim that RRI is advantageous for businesses [14], other studies point to the negative effects of RRI on innovation processes [15]. With this background, we suggest that responsibility lies with individual actors [10] and that responsible decisions need to be undertaken at the firm level [16]. We suggest there is scope for ‘responsible innovation’ (RI) approach, which has a more fine-grained focus on the innovation itself [17,18] and may be more amenable to operationalization. In this SI we invited theoretical and empirical contributions that focus on how firms organize their entrepreneurial and innovation process to ensure responsible outcomes.