Responsible Innovation and De Jure Standardisation: An In-Depth Exploration of Moral Motives, Barriers, and Facilitators

Abstract

Standardisation is increasingly seen as a means to insert ethics in innovation processes. We examine the institutionalisation of responsible innovation in de jure standardisation as this is an important but unexplored research area. In de jure standardisation, stakeholders collaborate in committees to develop standards. We adopt the anticipation, inclusion, reflexivity, and responsiveness responsible innovation framework as our theoretical lens. Our study suggests that responsible standardisation processes should embody forms of these four dimensions. We investigate the institutionalisation of these dimensions and identify 96 factors that can motivate, hinder, or facilitate responsible standardisation. Factors were found through in-depth interviews with managers of a standard developing organisation. These are subsequently validated/rejected using surveys completed by committee representatives. The results suggest that the social desirability of standards is not self-evident. This study could pave the way for future research on responsible standardisation processes, complementing research on legitimacy, responsible innovation, and standardisation.

Towards responsible standardisation: investigating the importance of responsible innovation for standards development

“…This is also known as 'the problem of many hands' (van de , resulting in 'organised irresponsibility' (Beck 1993). Most importantly, while inclusion is deemed the most important dimension, it is also perceived to be the most inadequately institutionalised dimension in standardisation (Wiarda et al 2022). Furthermore, the study hints at the importance of the criterion identification of impacts.…”

“…However, identifying societal impacts of standards has received little attention and lacks proper formalisation in standardisation (Wiarda et al 2022). This could be due to the difficulty of defining and assessing non-quantifiable impacts (Maas, Schaltegger, and Crutzen 2016).…”

“…However, RI's link with standardisation remains a largely neglected area of research despite its significance for innovation governance (Wiarda et al 2022;Wickson and Forsberg 2015). It remains unclear what RI means in the context of standardisation.…”

EURAS 2023 – (Responsible) Standardisation for Smart Systems - Conference report

“…On this background, it is good to consider what is responsible standardisation and what we mean by responsible specifically. As [Wiarda et al, 2022] puts it, responsible standardisation is a process that establishes socially desirable standards. In other words, responsible standardisation should improve the world and consider aspects such as environment, safety, and health [Wiarda et al, 2022].…”

“…As [Wiarda et al, 2022] puts it, responsible standardisation is a process that establishes socially desirable standards. In other words, responsible standardisation should improve the world and consider aspects such as environment, safety, and health [Wiarda et al, 2022]. A good example of where this did not happen was the case of Volkswagen as discussed by [Fried and Walgenbach, 2023], highlighting the importance of tracking the usage of standards to avoid cheating as it can have significant societal implications.…”