Responsible innovation for addressing grand societal challenges: the role of social innovation, exaptation, and retrovation

ABSTRACT

Numerous substantial challenges confront both individuals and society in the contemporary era. These encompass issues such as economic disparities, climate change, political polarization, and health crises such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic. These multifaceted challenges possess the potential to wield profound repercussions on the lives of individuals, business communities, societies, and the global landscape as well as to stimulate original patterns of responsible innovation. Addressing them necessitates a strategic blend of short-term remedies and far-reaching planning endeavours. Within the scope of this research, the manuscript elucidates the pivotal role of social innovation, exaptation, and retrovation as pioneering modes of responsible innovation uniquely suited to address the prevailing societal conundrums. Furthermore, it will explore the facilitative capacity of knowledge networks, positioning them as instruments that catalyze the implementation of these innovative strategies. Lastly, the article will deliberate upon the prospective trajectories within the domain of responsible innovation.

KEYWORDS:

• social innovation
• exaptation
• retrovation
• grand societal challenges
• responsible innovation

Acknowledgement

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the reviewers for their invaluable feedback, which significantly enhanced the quality of this manuscript. Special thanks are extended to Giacomo Sbalchiero for insightful discussions on retrovation business cases, and to Amir Maghssudipour for his thoughtful comments and suggestions. However, any errors that remain are solely my responsibility.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 A list of the most relevant projects is presented: Horizon2020 project BIOMAC (European Sustainable BIO-based nanoMAterials Community); SID Project 2021–2023 "The role of B Corps in the transition towards Carbon Neutrality – TRACY"; ‘Nuovi modelli di business e valutazione dell’impatto sociale: Percorsi di sostenibilità per le PMI’. Project funded by Fondo Sociale Europeo 2014-2020 – Asse II Inclusione sociale Strumenti di innovazione sociale NS2 Nuove Sfide Nuovi Servizi; SID project 2016–2018 ‘Manufacturing activities and value creation: redesigning firm's competitiveness through digital manufacturing in a circular economy framework’; Progetto Ateneo 2014 ‘Moving knowledge into action: exploring the micro-foundation of an innovation ecosystem’.

2 A bibliometric analysis was conducted through Bibliometrix, based on articles, book chapters, reviews, and books retrieved from the SCOPUS database using the search string TITLE-ABS-KEY ("responsible innovation" OR (("societal challenge*" OR "grand societal challenge*") + AND innovation) OR "sustainable innovation") AND PUBYEAR > 1977AND PUBYEAR < 2024AND (LIMIT-TO (SUBJAREA, "BUSI") OR LIMIT-TO (SUBJAREA, "SOCI")) AND (LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, "ar") OR LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, "ch") OR LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, "bk") OR LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, "re")) AND (LIMIT-TO (LANGUAGE, "English")) AND (LIMIT-TO (SRCTYPE, "b") OR LIMIT-TO (SRCTYPE, "k") OR LIMIT-TO (SRCTYPE, "j")). The search resulted in 2.246 documents, the majority of them published in the period 2010-2023, and has been helpful in setting the stage for the development of this paper.

3 A selection of conferences attended includes Regional Innovation Policies Conference ‘Radical and sustainable innovation in clusters and multi-specialized regions’, 22–24 September 2022, University of Padova, Italy; PDW: ‘Evolutionary Approaches to Innovation: New Developments’ at the 82nd Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Seattle, US, 5–9 August 2022; 5th international conference (hybrid) ‘Rethinking clusters: crisis and path renewal of places in time of uncertainty’, 5–7 September 2022, Osaka Metropolitan University, Japan; B Academics research roundtable, virtual event, September 29, 2021; 2nd International Workshop on Rethinking clusters: the local and global scale of sustainability transitions. 15 - 17 May 2019, University of Padova; Regional Innovation Policies Conference 2019 – Firenze 07–08 November 2019.

4 https://www.forbes.com/sites/hecparis/2021/07/08/the-bamboo-strategy-practical-new-tools-to-replace-porter-and-blue-ocean/?sh=6bca8452386e

 

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Padova, Deparment of Economics and Management, under the Project SID 2023 ‘Resolving the Retrovation Paradox: Leveraging the Past for a Sustainable Future  – PAST4FUT’.