Serendipity and Framing in the Emergence of a Platform for Responsible Innovation

Abstract

Why would an academic research project turn into a platform for responsible innovation despite incentives to focus on publishing research papers? To address this puzzle, we draw on the case of Patient Innovation, a non-profit medical platform, focusing on innovations by patients and caretakers to find affordable solutions for rare and chronic diseases by creating a ‘knowledge commons’. Initially set up as a ‘research platform’ aimed at generating scientific publications, it turned into a ‘help-society platform’ to create a wider social impact, despite not initially targeting such a goal. Using a framing lens, we explore the role of moral emotions and serendipitous inspiration in the creation of this medical platform. We examine how the reframing towards socially responsible innovation occurred despite strong institutional pressure to focus on publishing scientific research. In doing so, we develop a model illustrating how interactional framing in situations lead actors to shift towards responsible innovation. We explain how actors frame and reframe situations in which they interact and transcend their immediate self- interests in order to serve collective interests.