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Long abstract:

Innovation is invoked as the solution to myriad social challenges. Yet, there is growing criticism of technology, especially focused on the big four–Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta. Those companies are accused of seeking profit at the expense of humans and the environment. Alongside the rise of those companies, the theories and practices of responsible innovation have evolved out of constructive technology assessment and other scholarship. Policy implementation of responsible research and innovation (RRI) is seen in the UK as the AREA framework and in the European Union. In other parts of the world there is less formal adoption of responsible innovation. This led to the question: Do the responsibilities expressed by leaders in industry, government, and academia align with the human values associated with responsible innovation? To answer this question, approximately 100 organizational leaders were interviewed and expressed 2,300 discrete statements of responsibility for innovation. Those statements were thematically coded by six research assistants and interrater reliability was validated using Krippendorff’s Alpha. This is a novel method to assess innovation based upon the human values that underpin the responsibilities for innovation. This research offers an alternative to economic-output models to assess innovation by counting investments, patents, and publications. The results show evidence that the practice of responsible innovation is present, yet remains overshadowed by a myopic focus on wealth creation. This presentation will critically reflect on the role of science, technology, and society scholars to practice “bold modesty” and contribute to the reorientation of innovation toward broader human values.