The Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) Maturity Model: Linking Theory and Practice

Abstract

Abstract:Responsible research and innovation (RRI) is an approach to research and innovation governance aiming to ensure that research purpose, process and outcomes are acceptable, sustainable and even desirable. In order to achieve this ambitious aim, RRI must be relevant to research and innovation in industry. In this paper, we discuss a way of understanding and representing RRI that resonates with private companies and lends itself to practical implementation and action. We propose the development of an RRI maturity model in the tradition of other well-established maturity models, linked with a corporate research and development (R&D) process. The foundations of this model lie in the discourse surrounding RRI and selected maturity models from other domains as well as the results of extensive empirical investigation. The model was tested in three industry environments and insights from these case studies show the model to be viable and useful in corporate innovation processes. With this approach, we aim to inspire further research and evaluation of the proposed maturity model as a tool for facilitating the integration of RRI in corporate management.

Implementing Responsible Research and Innovation Practices in SMEs: Insights into Drivers and Barriers from the Austrian Medical Device Sector

“…This supports previous observations that SMEs are still largely unaware of RRI [7][8][9]18,20,21]. When the different elements of the concept (see Section 2) were explained to them, however, they had no difficulties in relating them to their company activities and in discussing potential enabling and obstructing factors.…”

“…A first working definition of RRI was proposed by von Schomberg [16] as a: "transparent, interactive process by which societal actors and innovators become mutually responsive to each other with a view on the (ethical) acceptability, sustainability and societal desirability of the innovation process and its marketable products (in order to allow a proper embedding of scientific and technological advances in our society)" [16]. In spite of ongoing debates about the definition of RRI [17] and the concept's continuous development [18], a common, general agreement about the meaning and key aspects of RRI has developed [9] in the form of four dimensions that would lead towards more responsible innovation processes [15,17,19], entailing a collective and continuous commitment to conduct research and innovation processes in an anticipatory, reflective, inclusive (deliberative), and responsive way [19]. At the same time, the European Commission has been promoting responsible research and innovation by funding projects on the thematic elements of ethics, gender and diversity, public engagement, open access, and science education through the previous and current European Framework Programmes "FP7" and "Horizon 2020".…”

“…Similar to conceptions of eco-innovation and sustainability innovation, RRI is based on the idea that societal well-being and innovative progress can mutually reinforce each other, and that social and environmental considerations can create economic benefits and business opportunities [5,6]. So far, however, evidence on how to implement RRI in businesses is limited [7][8][9]. Furthermore, insights into business reasons for implementation (such as expected value-added for business), as well as into drivers to support and barriers that might impede implementation, are scarce [10].…”

Responsibility versus Profit: The Motives of Food Firms for Healthy Product Innovation

“…A possible reason why RRI scholars seem convinced of the preference of moral motives over the relational and instrumental motives is because their main field of research has been non-commercial research and innovation, such as academic research [29,59]. Other studies on RRI in business have indicated that instrumental motives are far more prevalent when the innovation is implemented in a commercial setting [60][61][62][63][64][65].…”

Company Strategies for Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI): A Conceptual Model

“…Yaghmaei [62] distinguishes five successive stages of RRI implementation that can be used to characterize the level of ambition of a company's RRI strategy (see also [63], who distinguish somewhat different stages or (what they call) "maturity levels"). These five stages are:…”