Exploring the Business Case for Responsible Innovation

A series of national and international scandals - from Facebook-Cambridge Analytica, to Post Office Horizon and the collapse of the Dutch government over algorithmic profiling - are bringing the societal and commercial risks of irresponsible digital innovation into sharper focus. They highlight the responsibility challenges posed by smart information systems, and the potential impact of their misuse including misappropriation of personal data, loss of trust in institutions, and reputational and financial damage to businesses. At the same time, algorithmic technologies provide new opportunities for firms to develop competitive advantage through new capabilities. Emerging Human Resources technologies such as AI video interviewing indicate the potential these new technologies offer, and problematic aspects of how they gather and use personal data. These include tensions with legal or democratic norms, and the potential for previously-unknown technologies to move rapidly into mainstream use with unpredictable consequences. Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) offers a new way to consider issues of responsibility in the development of information systems. The question of whether organisations that innovate responsibly experience benefits is uncertain, and mirrors long-standing debates in areas such as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as to whether there is a business, as well as moral and legal case for responsibility, and if so, the conditions in which benefits can be achieved. This multidisciplinary work consists of two research directions: exploring the relationship between responsible innovation-related practices and benefits for organisations (including contextual considerations) and exploring the extent to which responsible innovation practices are applicable to technologies used in human resource management (HRM). The thesis examines the extent to which RRI can enable benefits to organisations, with specific reference to digital technologies and Human Resource Information Systems. It shows that responsible innovation practice is associated with a range of benefits; identifies a number of contextual considerations relevant to achieving these benefits; and demonstrates several ways in which responsible innovation practices are relevant to the development and implementation of emerging HRIS technologies. These include the empirical findings that a wider scope of RRI activity is associated with increased benefits to organisations; that culture and technology readiness level (TRL) can influence the realisation of RRI benefits; that the scope of data held about employees is rapidly increasing; that HRM literature has under-analysed algorithmic technologies; and that the RRI literature may not have fully considered the implications of technologies that enable cascading onward innovation. The thesis’ contribution to knowledge is to provide quantitative empirical insights relating to responsible innovation in industry, and to demonstrate the applicability of responsible innovation practices to organisations implementing emerging technologies. The thesis also establishes the relevance of responsible innovation methodologies to Human Resource Management practice, through interdisciplinary papers bridging the RRI, HRM, and computer ethics literature. Beyond academia, my findings are relevant to companies, HR and information systems professionals, and to public and non-governmental organisations seeking to promote responsible use of technology and personal data.