Responsibility versus Profit: The Motives of Food Firms for Healthy Product Innovation

Abstract

Abstract:Background: In responsible research and innovation (RRI), innovation is seen as a way in which humankind finds solutions for societal issues. However, studies on commercial innovation show that firms respond in a different manner and at a different speed to the same societal issue. This study investigates what role organizational motives play in the product innovation processes of firms when aiming for socially responsible outcomes. Methods: This multiple-case study investigates the motives of food firms for healthier product innovation by interviewing firms about the organizational motives behind product reformulation and innovation. Results: This study highlights the importance of having both instrumental and moral motives in the innovation process when aiming for socially responsible outcomes, and how both these motives interact and contribute to responsible innovation in industry. Furthermore, the study results question the nature of relational motives as a separate category from the other two categories of motives, as suggested by corporate social responsibility (CSR) scholars. Conclusions: If commercial innovation needs to contribute to solutions for societal issues, the importance of moral motives has to be stressed without annihilating the instrumental objectives of firms. Both motives contribute to the success factors of responsible product innovation in industry.

Responsible innovation in business: a critical reflection on deliberative engagement as a central governance mechanism

“…This currently highly debated stream within CSR emphasizes the importance of deliberation of multinational corporations with stakeholders and society, because of the growing political role of these corporations. Other articles about RI in business have investigated the motivations of companies to innovate responsibly (Garst et al 2017), the differences and similarities of RI with theories about social and sustainable entrepreneurship (Lubberink et al 2017b), the relation of RI to open innovation (Long and Blok 2017), and the drivers and barriers of implementing RI in small and medium-sized enterprises (Auer and Jarmai 2017).…”

“…This could be in conflict with the ideal of responsiveness to social and ethical considerations. For example, when companies use voice as a mechanism, one can expect that instrumental motives (to improve their business case) will always be present (Garst et al 2017). The dominance of strategic considerations could undermine taking social and ethical aspects seriously.…”

Responsible Research and Innovation in Industry—Challenges, Insights and Perspectives

“…This Special Issue offers a variety of contributions, including a literature review that expounds on the current state-of-play of the discourse on RRI in industry, empirical work that provides new insights into the motivations and practices of firms as well as the drivers and barriers for RRI in industry, and conceptual papers that offer potentially fruitful new avenues of research in this emerging field. Many of these contributions build on established concepts from adjacent discourses, particularly CSR and innovation management, such as risk [43], organizational motives [44], eco-innovation [45] and maturity models [25]. In doing so, they expand the field of application of these concepts and make them useful for understanding RRI in industry.…”

Responsible Research and Innovation in Enterprises: Benefits, Barriers and the Problem of Assessment

“…It is therefore the author's ambition to continue studies in that direction. Two avenues seem especially enticing: investigating RRI adoption and testing RRI assessment tools in selected sectors (for example food industry [56] or machinery building industry [57]) and exploring the territorial aspect of RRI in less-studied European regions (namely, Eastern and Central Europe [58]).…”