The Role of Creativity and Ethics in Responsible Innovation Behavior
Rita Roes (TU Delft - Technology, Policy and Management)
Laurens Rook – Mentor (TU Delft - Economics of Technology and Innovation)
Robert Verburg – Coach (TU Delft - Economics of Technology and Innovation)
Udo Pesch – Graduation committee member (Ethics & Philosophy of Technology)
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Abstract
As innovations became the source of competitive advantage for many companies, creativity became an incredibly valued trait, sought in individuals during recruitment processes for example. Creativity can be defined as the ability to generate novel and useful idea. However, as the world saw many creative inventions resulting in harmful innovations, as well as creative endeavors resulting in deceptive and even criminal behavior, many researchers started questioning the relationship between creativity and ethics.
One research area of emerging necessity, which has been getting continually more attention, is the area of Responsible Research and Innovation, which analyses how the process of creating something new, on the basis of research and innovation, can be done in a more responsible way, reflecting the need and values of society (Owen, Macnaghten, & Stilgoe, 2012). In that way, it is possible to see efforts towards making the creative achievements of certain individuals or groups more ethical, which refers to the discussion between ethics and creativity. For being a considerably new area of research, there is still much left to be done. While most studies currently employ a macro perspective, focusing on how to systematize the development of a Responsible Research and Innovation concept, this work intends to identify individual characteristics of responsible innovators, thus looking at the micro level. This adds a new perspective to the scientific efforts in this area, showing a different way of approaching the same topic. Recognizing how the responsible innovative behavior happens should make it possible to better understand its motivations and how to reinforce them. By incentivizing those behaviors, society will benefit from more ethical efforts in innovation, reducing both intended and unintended harmful consequences for innovation.