Improving industrial R&D practices with social and ethical aspects: : Aligning key performance indicators with social and ethical aspects in food technology R&D

• Autores: Steven M. Flipse, Maarten C.A. van der Sanden, Patricia Osseweijer
• Localización: Technological Forecasting and Social Change, ISSN-e 1873-5509, Vol. 85, Nº. 1, 2014, págs. 185-197
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Policy makers encourage integrating Social and Ethical Aspects (SEAs) in Research and Development (R&D) for the responsible development and deployment of future and emerging technologies, including Nanotechnology and Life Sciences. However, R&D project leaders in industry generally do not integrate SEAs explicitly in their daily practice. Furthermore, to what extent SEAs improve R&D remains unclear. We carried out a comparative research case study to assess to what extent R&D projects can be measurably improved through the integration of SEAs.

    We combined recent insights from Science and Technology Studies and Innovation Management to integrate SEAs in industrial R&D in the field of food technology and measured changes in project performance based on Key Performance Indicator (KPI) scores. We used Midstream Modulation with a group of project leaders and measured their projects' performance using a modified version of the Wageningen Innovation Assessment Toolkit.

    Results show that the integration of SEAs was not only perceived by participants to be functional and useful, but it also measurably improved KPI scores. We propose that the two methods can be integrated into a Success Factor based Live Innovation Project Scoring and Evaluation tool, which can be functionally deployed in R&D environments.