Operationalizing responsible research & innovation in industry through decision support in innovation practice

Abstract

This paper presents a tool that can help innovators to operationalize responsible research & innovation (RRI) in industry and offers decision support in their innovation project management. This tool is based on an earlier method of project quality assessment to identify innovative project success-related key performance indicators (KPIs). Based on real-world data and using structural equation modelling, a model is developed that relates the KPIs to one another and provides innovators with the opportunity to compare quality scores of current projects to a database of earlier successful and less successful project quality assessments. Building on this model, using a rapid prototyping approach based simulation and modelling, a scenario development tool has been developed that can predict success chances of current projects based on changing KPI score parameters. By highlighting the value of the KPIs in relation to RRI, and by elucidating what could be done to increase values of low scoring project KPIs, innovators who use the tool can evaluate possible actions they can deploy to increase the quality of their innovative projects, while simultaneously innovating in a more socially responsible way.