Konstantinos Iatridis

Responsible Research and Innovation in Industry:The Case for Corporate Responsibility Tools

Responsible research and innovation (RRI) is a governance framework promoted by influential policy makers such as the European Commission and academics from the fields of science and technology studies and management. This book is the first text to serve industry. Inspired by existing Corporate Responsibility standards and principles, it offers a selection of tools that can assist practitioners in implementing RRI in business and industry. Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is integrative. It is a convergence of Technology Assessment (TA) and Ethics, including corporate responsibility. The task of linking RRI to existing frameworks has only just begun. This book is a welcome example, showing how Corporate Responsibility tools can drive the implementation of RRI.

The Basics of Responsible Research and Innovation

Responsible research and innovation (RRI) is a newly emerging governance framework, promoted initially by public funders of research. This chapter explains the concept by defining its individual elements (responsibility, research and innovation). Three case studies are given: one from South Africa, where indigenous community involvement provided a significant lead for a health innovation; one from Germany, where end-user involvement in the innovation process led to faster and less contentious market entry; and one from India, where an innovation significantly improved the lives of the poorest girls and women. The concepts of responsiveness, inclusiveness and providing a societal good are illustrated through the case studies, mapped against policy and academic work on RRI and derived from the earlier discussions of responsibility.

An Overview of Corporate Responsibility Tools and Their Relationship with Responsible Research and Innovation

Corporate responsibility (CR) tools have an excellent potential to facilitate the implementation of responsible research and innovation (RRI) in industry. This chapter provides a detailed account of existing CR tools. It develops selection criteria for choosing the tools with the greatest potential to assist the implementation of RRI in industry. Background information on these tools is given, as well as data on the tools’ requirements. In addition, assessment criteria are developed to illustrate the tools’ suitability in setting up a framework for action that could form a basis for RRI implementation.

What Drives the Quality of Certifiable Management System Standards Implementation? Insights from the ISO 9001 Standard

Despite the important role certifiable management system standards (CMSS) play in our globalised economies, there still exists a gap in the literature regarding firms’ motives to implement these standards. This is mainly due to the fact that existing literature perceives certification as synonymous with implementation and does not take into account that quality of implementation, of CMSS among companies, varies. This chapter makes two important contributions. The first one is that it provides quantitative evidence to the relatively few studies that analyse quality of CMSS implementation. In doing so, this work advances our understanding of the factors that motivate firms to implement these standards. Most importantly, in contrast to previous studies that analyse drivers of average implementation of CMSS, this chapter also examines the motives related to low, medium and above average implementation of such standards. Using a novel dataset of 201, ISO 9001 certified firms, located in Greece, our analysis shows that sixty per cent of firms in the sample fail to conform to the requirements of the standard. In contrast to the dominant neo-institutional view in the analysis of CMSS, our econometric findings suggest that competitive motivations are the influential drivers in making companies fully commit to ISO 9001 (i.e. above average implementation).

Social standards: An empirical examination of early and late adopters’ motives and attitudes.

Certifiable management standards (CMS) are an important means of translating the corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda into managerial practices. There is no agreement in the literature, how...

Introduction: More Responsible Researchers and Innovators?

This book argues that corporate responsibility (CR) tools can help realize the goals of the responsible research and innovation (RRI) framework. RRI is a newly emerging governance framework, promoted by public funders of research such as the European Commission. When RRI is applied in industry, funder requirements are not enough to implement it, given that private research and innovation funds are involved. Instead, we argue, CR tools are well suited to bridge this gap as they are self-regulatory and have been established to promote a common understanding as well as a common means of performance evaluation globally.

‘Are You RRI-Aware?’ a Question-and-Answer Chapter for Innovators

The book ends with a dialogic tool that asks the reader questions about responsible research and innovation (RRI), responsibility, corporate responsibility, risk assessment, diversity, user involvement and other aspects of RRI to test awareness of research and innovation governance concepts and tools. Sample answers are provided.

Applying Corporate Responsibility Tools to Responsible Research and Innovation

Corporate responsibility (CR) tools are mapped onto the von Schomberg, Owen and Science with and for Society (SwafS) definitions of responsible research and innovation (RRI) to see which ones may be suitable for adoption within the context of RRI implementation and which gaps remain. Three case studies show how the CR tools selected can facilitate RRI implementation. The first refers to Abengoa, a highly active company in the field of sustainability; the second discusses Seventh Generation’s approach to corporate responsibility and how this links with RRI; and the third presents Teck, a mining company which uses a variety of corporate responsibility tools in managing its operations.

The Basics of Corporate Responsibility

A concise account of corporate responsibility (CR) is provided to facilitate a later comparison of CR and responsible research and innovation. The chapter clarifies the concept by discussing different types of corporate responsibilities and explaining their links with similar concepts such as corporate sustainability, corporate accountability, corporate citizenship and corporate social performance. One focus is on how to develop a CR strategy and the main topics that firms need to pay attention to when doing so. Another focus is the benefits stemming from engagement in CR activities.