Application of the ANP to the prioritization of project stakeholders in the context of responsible research and innovation

Abstract

This paper presents a methodology to assess the stakeholders' influence in a research project within the context of Responsible Research and Innovation. The methodology is based on a combination of the multicriteria decision making technique Analytic Network Process and the key areas of responsible research. The method allows ranking and ordering the project's stakeholders based on their influence upon its responsibility. The purpose of such an assessment is to help research teams to more efficiently devote their limited resources to stakeholder management. The procedure is applied to a case study of the Information and Communication Technology business sector. It is an ongoing project at an early phase of development. Influential stakeholders have been identified first, and have been further classified into groups based on their relative importance. The assessment of their influence has been based on up to 16 different criteria, mainly belonging to the framework of Responsible Research and Innovation. In the case study, the most influential criterion was the Capability to promote public engagement, while Developers were found to be the stakeholders most contributing to the research project responsibility. However, as explained, this is a temporary situation, valid for the current project development situation. It may vary over time as criteria vary in weight and stakeholders vary in influence.

Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in Emerging Economies: a Preliminary Review

“…For example, through stakeholder engagement to increase participation in various phases of research and innovation [26], [31], [37]. Although stakeholders have different influences on RRI, their involvement is all needed to increase public trust in research and innovation [29], [36], [40]. Stakeholder engagement through dialogue can be done, for example, in the form of foresight and technology assessment in the early phase of research and innovation [37].…”

Perspectives on the Capabilities for the Selection of Strategic Projects

“…Therefore, resulting projects may have problems in project coordination and management [5]. In addition, the selection process should also consider organizational managerial capabilities such as resource management [7], value management [8], governance [9], risk management ( [10,11]), and stakeholder management ( [12][13][14]). These managerial capabilities support resource optimization and competitive value generation [15] to achieve organizational goals [16].…”

“…There are some quantitative methods reported by authors for individual managerial capabilities. For example, the use of survey method is used for risk analysis ( [11,13,103]), stakeholder prioritization [12], and resource analysis ( [15,87,138]). Therefore, the research can focus on developing and integrating quantitative methods or frameworks to assess managerial strength and link them to appropriate steps to select projects.…”

Editorial

“…Bipolar method, one of the multiple criteria decision analysis methods is improved and illustrated by numerical examples in the paper of Trzaskalik et al (2019). Further studies of decision support methodologies include integrating DEMATEL with the analytic network process (ANP) (Kadoič et al 2018), an application of ANP (Ligardo- Herrera et al 2018), and a comparison of structural equation modelling (SEM) with the two-step method integrating SEM with artificial neural network approach (Sternad Zabukovšek et al 2018).…”