Leveraging digital technology for responsible innovation: evidence from the manufacturing industry

To address the potential negative consequences of innovation, responsible innovation (RI) has attracted growing attention from scholars and policymakers in recent years. However, it remains mostly theoretical. There is limited empirical research on how RI is operationalized in specific institutional contexts. The development of digital technology has brought novel changes to manufacturing firms, bringing new opportunities for RI realization. To explore the potential and fill the research gap, this chapter examines how digital technology helps the operationalization of RI by studying a Chinese water meter manufacturer, FreshX. We find that digital technology brings four key shifts, namely new value creation logic, new product architecture, a new knowledge acquisition path, and new value chain configuration, to manufacturing firms, which firms can leverage for RI operationalization. This chapter contributes to the RI and information systems literature by uncovering how digital technology enables the operationalization of RI in the manufacturing domain.