Marc Ingham – Editions de Boeck, December 2011 - 250 P
The aim of this specialist in strategic management and innovation, a professor at the ESC in Dijon, is to analyse the extent to which the economic performance and competitiveness of companies are linked to their investments in responsible innovation - which would be a strong argument in his favour.
The author defines responsible innovation as "the voluntary integration of social and environmental dimensions into the strategies, development, production and marketing of more efficient solutions that have as their project and result the creation of 'societal' value", i.e. economic, social or environmental value. This process results in responsible technological innovations, "not purely technological" (organizational, practices, services), or "systemic" (combining the two previous ones). Based on an analysis of examples and available empirical studies, the author concludes that the link between social and environmental performance and economic and financial performance cannot be asserted.
The first reason would be that many companies follow a reactive short-term approach in which the aim is just to minimise, through various innovative processes, the environmental impacts of activities without harming economic performance. Businesses are often alienated from the idea that social and environmental performance can enhance economic performance.
Second reason, there is a latent contradiction between responsibility and innovation, due in particular to the uncertainties and technological risks that may accompany the latter. Nevertheless, the author continues to believe, in line with other management specialists such as Michael Porter and Mark Kramer and their concept of "shared value", or Timo Busch and his colleagues, that responsible innovations are, in the long term, sources of economic performance, particularly because they are part of a differentiation or disruptive approach and bring to companies a reputation of "social responsibility" that builds loyalty among customers and internal and external stakeholders.
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