Elena Giaretta

Ethical product innovation: in praise of slowness

Purpose – The aim of the paper is to consider whether constant product innovation is compatible with the ethical management of a business. The question arises out of observations of two pressures exerted by global competition, i.e. the speed of change, which pushes in the direction of continuous innovation, and the determining power of demand, which wishes to see business conduct itself ethically.Design/methodology/approach – With a theoretical approach, the paper highlights how these two pressures are both exerted on business, the advantages for business as well as for the consumers, deriving from the tendency of companies to innovate at all times and in ever shorter times, and the sins that an enterprise may commit when involved in a “competition vortex” created by the pressure of the speed of change.Findings – What can a business imprisoned in this vortex do to escape when the fear of being “left behind” blinds it to seeing any other courses open to it? The paper proposes a possibly controversial, and ...