Responsible innovation (RI) sets to include different stakeholders in the innovation process in order to achieve ethically acceptable, socially desirable and sustainable results. Therefore, RI can help sustainable entrepreneurs operating at the niche level to develop and diffuse innovations that create social, environmental and economic value while triggering socio-technical transitions navigating the consideration of socio-ethical values. Beyond factors at the firm level, system dynamics will also affect the capacity of sustainable entrepreneurs to include socio-ethical issues in their activities.
In this seminar, we present the case of the transition to the circular economy in the Netherlands. Aiming to find how system-level conditions affect the engagement of sustainable entrepreneurs in sustainable innovation, we selected interviewees that represented different stakeholders in the system for water, energy and climate-smart agriculture, and conducted 34 interviews with agents from different realms: policy-makers, consultants, support organizations, NGOs, knowledge generators, incumbents, farmers’ associations and business accelerators.
The preliminary results contribute to understanding the role of stakeholders other than the entrepreneur in reflecting societal values through RI, and the strategic and ethical foundations of RI at the system level. Therefore, it helps to understand the role of agents other than the entrepreneur in systems transitions to sustainability that reflect societal values through RI. From the managerial perspective, it shows points that deserve attention from sustainable entrepreneurs in the development and diffusion of responsible innovations, illustrating the greatest enhancers and barriers to be overcome. During the seminar, besides presenting the case we will seek the input and active discussion of the participants to improve the insights that we can extract from these results.