Responsible innovation in industry: a cautionary note on corporate social responsibility

Abstract

In their recent paper, “Responsible Innovation: A Primer for Policymakers”, Valdivia and Guston offer their definition of the emerging concept of “responsible innovation” (RI). To illustrate how “RI” operates in the policy arena, Valdivia and Guston present three initiatives focusing on industry, universities and national laboratories, and the federal government. This commentary, however, will focus only on the “industry” initiative and the concept of “corporate social responsibility”, which represents the managerial philosophy proposed by Valdivia and Guston to promote RI in industry. According to Valdivia and Guston: “CSR must be extended to innovation in emerging technologies in order for responsible innovation to influence both new entrants and incumbent firms working at the forefront of innovation.” An alternative managerial framework–corporate citizenship–is proposed that incorporates the concept of social responsibility into the organizational structure of the firm and is reflective of the ISO 26000 voluntary international standard on social responsibility. For RI, corporate citizenship is the managerial framework which will most effectively promote a concept which has increasing salience for advanced manufacturing economies concerned with biotechnology, nanotechnology, and information technology, and their respective ethical, environmental, political, and social effects on society.