Responsible Research and Innovation in Enterprises: Benefits, Barriers and the Problem of Assessment

Abstract

In the paper, the author takes stock of the conceptual reflection and empirical studies described in the current scientific literature on responsible innovation in the context of the emergence of the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) concept. RRI has been promoted in the European Union as a part of the Europe 2020 strategy with the objective of making research and innovation more sustainable and inclusive. As more than half of the EU’s firms declare they are conducting innovation activities, RRI problems are more relevant than ever. There remain many open questions, unresolved dilemmas and empirical white spots that call for more research in this field. This paper’s focus is the problem of RRI acceptance as a global framework for responsible innovation and the scarcity of suitable instruments that may help industries understand and adopt this concept. The main contributions of this paper include critical analysis of the RRI concept and its implications for industry, proposing a concept of an RRI index for innovating enterprises.

Responsible Innovation for Sustainable Development Goals in Business: An Agenda for Cooperative Firms

“…Their review seems to confirm the capacity of Horizon 2020 to guide research towards grand societal challenges. However, the Achilles' heel of the socio-technical integration that culminates with Horizon 2020-and the transformation of the European innovation system based on the RRI framework-is the integration of the private sector together with policymakers, the scientific community, and civil society actors [63][64][65][66].…”

“…In the European context, the involvement of the private sector has become, in the last years, a central concern regarding the capacity of responsible innovation to orient multiple stakeholders towards the grand societal challenges of our time. As Nazarko [66] points out, academic production on responsible research and innovation has slowed down in recent years. The uncertain future of RRI in EU framework programs could explain this changing trend [69].…”

“…. )" [66] (p. 3). Indeed, this interest in extending RRI's sphere of influence to the private sector has materialized in the development of different European projects such as RRI-Tools [70], Res-AGorA [71], Responsible Industry [72], or PRISMA [73], projects that fuel a-still incipient-academic debate on this matter.…”

Influence of COVID-19 Pandemic on Dissemination of Innovative E-Learning Tools in Higher Education in Poland

“…Business models have also recently been a subject for research related to the pandemic; for example, they refer to the COVID-19 crisis [ 65 ], mobile market during COVID-19 [ 13 ], COVID-19 transformation of an urban public transport system [ 66 ], management after COVID-19 [ 67 ], and identification of digital transformation paths in the business model of SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 68 , 69 ]. When it comes to Industry 4.0 and innovations, many scientists are carrying out studies on the competitiveness and effectiveness of an open business model in Industry 4.0 [ 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 ], enhancing creative intensity and profit on the open-source digital platforms [ 75 , 76 ], evolution of technology [ 77 , 78 ], expanding technology acceptance [ 79 ], and many more topics—also referring to responsible research and innovation [ 80 ]. Open innovation in education has also been the preferred field of research in recent years [ 81 , 82 , 83 ].…”

Total Productive Maintenance Approach to an Increase of the Energy Efficiency of a Hotel Facility and Mitigation of Water Consumption

“…The effects of global warming and the huge costs that are incurred through mismanagement of natural resources are being increasingly felt [1][2][3][4][5]. Large facilities that absorb enormous amounts of water and energy are usually equipped with obsolete appliances without precise control of consumption [6,7].…”