Abstract
The concept of innovation is making a successful comeback in philosophy, particularly with the qualifier “responsible” attached. This attachment of the qualification “responsible” reflects the idea that the concept of innovation has to be opened to new considerations, namely social, political and ethical concerns. Since the 18th century, innovation has been the object of economics and science of business and growth. This paper aims at testing the legitimacy of these attempts to open the concept and redefine it in terms other than those of economics. We start with a contextualization of the use of the term innovation, to see why it has been so strongly associated with the market, growth and business then we see what is at stake in opening it up to other considerations. We consider the limits of this opening and look at possible ways to attach other meanings to the concept, without losing significance by too much inclusion. The solution proposed is that instead of imposing new parameters and trying to shift the concept, we could keep the economic bias of the term, but challenge it with concerns expressed by people coming from the field of economics who are trying to propose an alternative framework for economics that would take into account other concerns, and in which responsible innovation could find a place.
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Akrich, M., Callon, M., et Latour, B.: A quoi tient le succès des innovations? Annales des Mines 11, 4–17 (1988)
Taylor Cromer, C., Dibrell, C., Craig, J.B.: A study of Schumpterian (radical) vs. Kirznerian (incremental) innovations in knowledge intensive industries. Journal of Strategic Innovation and Sustainability 7(1), 28–42 (2011)
Chesbrough, H.: Open Innovation: the New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology. Harvard Business School Press, Boston (2003)
Guchet, X.: Les Sens de l’évolution technique. Léo Scheer, Paris (2005)
Girard, R.: Innovation and Repetition. SubStance, Issue 62/63: Special Issue: Thought and Novation 19(2/3), 7–20 (1990)
Hilaire-Pérez, L., Thébaud-Sorger, M.: Les techniques dans l’espace public, Publicité des inventions et littératures d’usage au XVIIIe siècle (France, Angleterre). Revue de Synthèse, 5e série 2006(2), 393–428 (2006)
European Commission. Council Decision establishing the Specific Programme implementing Horizon 2020 -The Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2014-2015), ch. 17. Science with and for Society, Version 1.0. 9 (2013)
European Union, Horizon 2020, Work Programme 2014-2015, ch. 16, Science with and for Society, European Commission Decision C (2013) 8631 (2013)
European Union, Responsible Research and Innovation, Europe’s ability to respond to societal challenges (2012), http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/index.cfm?fuseaction=public.topic&id=1622 (retrieved in February 2014)
Masclet, L., Goujon, P.: Implementing Ethics in IS, presuppositions and consequences in ethics and IS. In: Hercheui, M.D., Whitehouse, D., McIver Jr., W., Phahlamohlaka, J. (eds.) HCC10 2012. IFIP AICT, vol. 386, pp. 287–298. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)
McCraw, T.: Prophet of innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge (2007)
McDonald, C.: Penserl’invention. Étudesfrançaises 26(3), 101–109 (1990), http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/035828ar (retrieved September 18, 2013)
Pestre, D.: A contre-science, Politiques et savoirs des sociétés contemporaines, Paris, Seuil (2013)
Schlanger, J.: Penser la bouche pleine. Librairie Arthème Fayard, Paris (1975, 1983)
Schlanger, J.: L’Invention intellectuelle. Librairie Arthème Fayard, Paris (1983)
Schumpeter, J.: Business Cycles, A Theoritical, Historical and Statistical Analysisof the Capitalist Process. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York (1939)
Schumpeter, J.: The Theory of Economic Development: An Inquiry Into Profits, Capital, Credit, Interest, and the Business Cycle. Transaction Publisher, New Brunswick (1986); (first edition: Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1934)
O’Sullivan, D., Dooley, L.: Applying Innovation. Sage Publication, Inc., Thousand Oaks (2009)
Owen, R., Heintz, M., Bessant, J.: Responsible Innovation, Managing the Responsible Emergence of Science and Innovation in Society. John Wiley, London (2013)
Schrempf, B., Kaplan, D., Schroeder, D.: National, Regional, and Sectoral Systems of Innovation – An overview, Report for FP7 Project “Progress”, progressproject.eu (2013)
Schutte, C., Marais, S.: The Development of Open Innovation Models to Assist the Innovation Process. University of Stellenbosch, South Africa (2010)
Stahl, B.: Responsible research and innovation in information systems. European Journal of information Systems 21, 207–211 (2012)
Swedberg, R.: Rebuilding Schumpeter’s Theory of Entrepreneurship. In: Conference on Marshall, Schumpeter and Social Science. Hitotsubashi University (2007)
Veugelers, R.: How to Turn on the Innovation Growth Machine in Europe. In: Metaforum Leuven, Interdisciplinary Think-thank for Societal Debate, Leuven (June 2013)
Verley, P.: La révolution industrielle, Coll. Folio Histoire, Gallimard, Paris (2010)
Ricoeur, P., Ricoeur, P.: Oneself as Another. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1992)
Jonas, H.: The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of an Ethics for the Technological Age. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1984)
Latouche, S.: Survivre au développement, De la décolonisation de l’imaginaire économique à la construction d’une société alternative. Arthème Fayard (2004)
Sen, A.: On economics inequality. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1973)
Okan, K., Pamukcu, T.: Innovation Capability for Development: An attempt to apply Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach to Innovation Studies. In: 8th Annual Conference of the HDCA, The Hague, The Netherlands, September 6-8 (2011)
Arnsperger, C.: Critique de l’existence capitaliste: Pour une éthique existentielle de l’économie. Edition du Cerf, Paris (2005)
Georgescu-Roegen, N.: Energy and Economic Myths: Institutional and Analytical Economic Essays. Pergamon Press, New York (1976)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing
About this paper
Cite this paper
Masclet, L., Goujon, P. (2014). Origins, Developments and Future of the Concept of Innovation: Opening the Economic Framing of Innovation to Social, Ethical, Political Parameters to Achieve Responsibility: Strengths and Limits. In: Kimppa, K., Whitehouse, D., Kuusela, T., Phahlamohlaka, J. (eds) ICT and Society. HCC 2014. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 431. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44208-1_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44208-1_7
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-44207-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-44208-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)