Journal of Japanese Management Vol.3, No.1, November 2018ISSN 2189-9592

A Conceptual Framework for Responsible Innovation
Kim Hua Tan

Nottingham University Business School, the United Kingdom.
Email: kim.tan@nottingham.ac.uk
Tetsuo Yamada

University of Electro-Communications
Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering, Japan.
Email: tyamada@uec.ac.jp
Abstract
This paper proposes a framework to assist firms in achieving sustainable and responsible
innovation in their research and innovation processes. It unravels how Japanese firms (such as
Shiseido, Toyota, Rakuten etc.) have successfully takes into account of effects and potential
impacts on the environment and society when accelerating their product innovation and services.
For example, Nintendo Inc., a world leading Japanese consumer electronics and video gamecompany, is one of the most influential in the industry for its reputation in corporate social
responsibility (CSR) and rapid innovation. The ability of Japanese firms to launch new products
in rapid succession over short periods of time is worth worldwide attention, as this could informthe next generation of innovation. In this paper, we discuss the framework that sets out thecornerstones for responsible product innovation.
Keywords
Accelerated Innovation, Creativity, Responsible, Low Cost, Corporate Social Responsibility(1) Introduction
The term Responsible Innovation (RI) or‘Responsible Research and Innovation’ is an
emerging language for science and society,especially in the UK, Europe and in the USA.
The most widely cited definition of RI is of Rene
von Schomberg (2011), who defines RI as‘Responsible Research and Innovation is atransparent, interactive process by whichsocietal actors and innovators become mutually
responsive to each other with a view to the(ethical) acceptability, sustainability andsocietal desirability of the innovation process

and its marketable products (in order to allow aproper embedding of scientific and technologicaladvances in our society)”. In a nutshell, the ideaof responsible innovation is to engage public
participation early into the research and productdevelopment process and embed the processwith a sound scientific and technological risk
assessment approach (Stilgoe et al, 2013). So far,
RI stirs great expectations, hence requires
tighter scrutiny (Nerlich & McLeod, 2016).
Practitioners and academics need an easy tointerpret framework to better understand andinterpret RI in practice.
22

Journal of Japanese Management Vol.3, No.1, November 2018

Nonetheless, the concept of RI is notentirely novel. Eco-innovation has been widely
implemented in Japan in 80s. Japanese
products, with strong synthesis of aesthetic,
harmony and function is well suited tomaintaining humanity, environmental friendly
and connection in a technology driven world(Yamada, 2008). For example, Nintendo Inc., aworld leading Japanese consumer electronics
and video game company, is one of the mostinfluential in the industry for its reputation incorporate social responsibility (CSR) and rapid
innovation (Nintendo, 2018). The ability ofJapanese firms to launch new products in rapid
succession over short periods of time is worth
worldwide attention, as this could inform thenext generation of innovation, especially RI.
This paper aims to unravel how Japanesefirms have successfully takes into account ofeffects and potential impacts on theenvironment and society when accelerating
their product innovation. Drawing on literature
as well as best practices from various firms, inthis paper, we propose a framework that sets out
the cornerstones for responsible productinnovation.

ISSN 2189-9592

in Japan, Xu and Nash (2013) argue that
innovation can be structured into four
dimensions i.e. product innovation, process
innovation, business innovation, and social
innovation. The four dimensions proposed by Xu
and Nash (2013) are overlapped with the OECD
Oslo manual. Especially, the organisational andmarketing innovation dimension of the OECD(2005) is grouped under the business innovation
dimension in the Xu and Nash’s work.
In sustainable term, all innovations may
be categorised into eco-innovation, green
innovation or responsible innovation. In thissection, we adapt Xu and Nash (2013) fourinnovation structure as the theoreticalarguments that underpin our framework on
responsible innovation. We do acknowledge
stakeholders(i.e.
governments,
NGOs,
community actors, employees) play a significant
role in responsible innovation because frequent
meaningful interactions between firms andstakeholders can influence the economic,
environmental, and social activities. We thenlinking the proposed framework with the
responsible innovation concept. We use
examples and good practices of existing
Japanese firms to discuss how the framework
may add to the current discourse andmanagement on responsible innovation.

(2) Towards a Conceptual Framework for
Responsible Innovation
There is no shortage of terms forinnovation i.e. incremental innovation (Proctor
et al., 2004), disruptive innovation (Tan &Perrons, 2009), radical innovation, open
innovation (Tan et al. 2015), serial innovation(Chung and Tan, 2017), transformative
innovation (Li and Tan, 2017), and accelerated
innovation (Tan & Zhan, 2016). In the OECD
Oslo Manual (2005), innovation is categorised
into four types i.e. product innovation, process
innovation, organisational innovation, andmarketing innovation. Based on a long-term
study of innovation and creativity management

1. Product Innovation
Product innovation is not just about
improvement of functions, quality or esthetics.
Product innovation should also take into accountfactors from various levels ranging from social
ecology, society, to individual. A good example is
Shiseido, one of the leading hair care firms inJapan. The firm produces many well-known
products that make people happy throughbeauty (Shiseido, 2018). Shiseido also supports
women empowerment in its business operations
and respects diverse beauty. Though most23

Journal of Japanese Management Vol.3, No.1, November 2018

products are ‘designed’ in Japan, the firm
strongly promote ethical supply chain andrecycling of resources (see Table 1). The wholeprocess from sourcing, manufacturing, logistics,
selling, and recycling is well thought out for eachand every product in Shiseido.

ISSN 2189-9592

Table 2: Process Innovation
Process

SocialSociety

Individual

innovation

ecology

ToyotaRecycling

Initiatives

Respect

based

for traffic forsocietysafetyindividual

andTable 1: Product Innovation
Product

SocialSociety

innovation

ecology

Shiseido

Ethical

Women

Makes

supplyempowepeoplechain,

rment,

happy

resources

respect

throughrecycling

diversebeautysystems

Individual

3. Business Innovation
At the corporate strategy level, business
innovation aims to create value for firms. It
typically involves a business model to offer (orbundle) existing products or services tocustomers but at a higher value. Especially withthe advent of internet and technology, many
firms are able to ‘disrupt’ incumbent players
through business innovation. A new businessmodel can open up novel ways to generate
revenue as well as adding values to consumers
through integrating services, new solutions, andunique customer experiences. For example,
using e-commerce, Rakuten allows consumers toshop from home, a service offering that provides
much convenient to millions of shoppers. All
purchases through Rakuten are protected andsometime shoppers may enjoy more ‘perks’ (i.e.
extended guarantee, longer refund date etc.)
than buying from a physical store (see Table 3).

beauty2. Process Innovation
A process innovation normally involve
new production or methods. Toyota is a world
famous process innovation firm. Toyota
Production System aka Lean Manufacturing isbeing actively adopted by governments,
universities, NGOs, and firms worldwide to
improve their product or service operations.
Through process innovation, Toyota enables cars
to be manufactured in high quality, exceeding
safety requirements, yet at an affordable pricefor consumers (Toyota, 2018). The 7 waste
concept also helps to educate managers to take awider view on their operations from sourcing of
raw materials to product end of life recycling
potential (see Table 2). Toyota production
system respect individual worker and pursuingsustainable operations in very processes. For
example, the karakuri is an automatedmechanism to reduce workers’ stress and labour.
The approach is suitable for most assembly
operations and it relies on gravity and simple
mechanism,
hence
eliminates
energyconsumption in production.

Table 3: Business Innovation
Business

SocialSociety

Individual

innovation

ecology

RakutenSocialLatestIndividual

entreprentechnolpurchaseeur

ogy

protection

programaddress

tolocal
issuesBy using latest technology, Rakuten also
initiated projects with communities to address
24

Journal of Japanese Management Vol.3, No.1, November 2018

local issues (Rakuten, 2018). With its specificknowledge and vast IT resources, Rakuten
works with local entrepreneurs to grow theirbusinesses and help to promote social harmony.

social innovation by taking advantage of its
accumulated experience and ability to create
enjoyable experiences that keep consumers
coming back for more (Nintendo, 2018). For
example, the Wii Family Version allows wholefamily members to enjoy entertainment together
and to improve social bonding. Its mission isbringing smiles to the community.
Based on the four innovation structure,
Table 5 shows the proposed responsible innovation framework.
The proposed framework was developed
based on the belief that we can collectively
engage with the social, environmental, politicaland ethical dimension of responsible innovation.
The goal of the framework is to provide guidancefor practitioners, academics, policy makers tomake research and innovation more inclusive
and responsive. In line with Xu and Nash (2013),
we view the four types of innovation as the
structure of responsible innovation, but it is not
one after another. Some cases may havecommenced by business innovation, and some bysocial innovation, product innovation or process
innovation. Hence, the steps are not neatly
sequential stages, but that there is considerable
iteration between steps. Table 5 shows
circulating arrows to indicate iteration.

4. Social Innovation
As the name implying, social innovation
involves changes (new technology or business
schemes) that have an impact on society. A good
example of social innovation is by Nintendo, oneof the world’s largest video game companies. Its
mission is not just fun and entertainment foreveryone, but also “Bringing Smiles to Future
Generations” (Nintendo, 2018). To ensure that
products are safe for everyone, especially young
children, Nintendo has established its own
designsafetystandards
for
product
development. Game ratings systems enable
individual to select games that are suitable andacceptable to them. Moreover, Nintendo’s
products also has integrated parental controls
for parents to allowing family members to enjoy
games with peace of mind (see Table 4).
Table 4: Social Innovation
SocialSocialinnovation

ecology

Nintendo

ISSN 2189-9592

Society

Individual

StrictIncorporGamecontent

ating

ratings

guidelines,

games

systems for

games

into

target age

complyschoolrange,

Sociallocal

lessons

Integrated

ecologyregulation

toparental

Productsenhancecontrols

innovation

andcultures

Table 5: An Iterative Process in the Responsible
Innovation Frameworklearning

Process
innovation

Nintendo also utilized its uniquestrengths of hardware-software integrated
development and its characters, beloved acrossgenerations, to incorporate games into school
lessons (Nintendo, 2018). Nintendo achieves

Businessinnovation
Socialinnovation

25

Society

Individual

Journal of Japanese Management Vol.3, No.1, November 2018

The framework enables managers tounderstand the extent to which a firm embraces
moral, environmental, social, and governancefactors into its innovation, and ultimately the
impact these factors have on the firm and society.

ISSN 2189-9592

pressure by its stakeholders (government,
communities,
NGOs,
consumers,
andemployees) to response towards their need for abetter product, environment and society. In
another words, Toyota constantly enduring
obligations throughout the entire process of a car
manufacturing from idea generation until thedisposal stage. The purpose of the case is to show
how Toyota can collectively engage with thesocial, environmental, political and ethicaldimension of responsible innovation.

(3) Case example
In this section, we will use a test case(Toyota) to illustrate the application of the
proposed framework. As one of the world largest
automakers, Toyota constantly facing great

Table 6: Toyota’s Responsible Innovation Framework Example
Social ecology

Society

Individual

Ethical supply chain

Fun to drive and zerocasualties

Product innovation

Smart mobility

Process innovation*

Recyclingbased Initiatives for traffic Respect for individual
society and systemsafetyBusiness innovation

Enriching life
communities

Social innovationof Personal devices and High quality andself-driving technology. environmental
performance car for
stress free driving
Contribute to local Distribute income to Income
andjobcommunities
and local people
security
reducedeconomic
inequality*See section 2.2 for Process innovation dimension

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is
core to Toyota in staying ahead of competitorsand maintaining its position and reputation in
the automotive industry (Toyota, 2018). The key
is to balance its profits and the welfare of thesociety, consumers, and environment. The
Kaizen philosophy is one of the Toyota corevalues that underpin product innovation.
Designing a car that is fun to drive and at thesame time to achieve zero casualties are two
important objectives that Toyota committed fully.
Toyota constantly continuously developing new
safety technologies (i.e. Toyota Safety Sense),

and improving on existing ones to cover more
and more products in the Toyota lineup (Beatty,
2018). Thoughout the product development
stages, Toyota maintain a genuine commitment
to social responsibility and ethical businesspractices. In the long term, Toyota will meet thechallenging goal of smart mobility by innovating
vehicle technology to realize comfortable,
convenient lifestyles that offer people peace ofmind (Toyota Global, 2018).
In Toyota, CSR activities are implemented
throughout the course of daily operations basedon its corporate philosophy. Hence, Toyota is able
26

Journal of Japanese Management Vol.3, No.1, November 2018

to integrate product and process innovation intobusiness innovation to generate revenue as wellas adding values to consumers throughintegrating services and solutions. For example,
Prius, a low emission Toyota model using full
hybrid powertrain technology is a highenvironment performance car. It provides highly
educated and environmentally conscious
consumers a stress free driving experience.
Toyota also capitalizes on its superior
competences in product and process innovation
to develop commercial viable self-driving cars
(Pham, 2018). Ultimately, one of Toyota’s visions
is to contribute to the safest, most responsible
ways of transporting people and to enriching the
lives of communities around the world (Toyota,2018).
Today, Toyota also giving a large proportion of
its profits back to local communities to achieve ahealthier environment and reduce economic
inequality (Toyota, 2018). In order to contribute to thesociety, Toyota has involved in various environmental
and social innovation activities, including
philanthropy, community relations, anddiversity and inclusion (Mazzoni, 2014). Besides
creating job opportunities for local communities
through its global operations, Toyota also utilizes
its global know-how to help nonprofits do more
for the communities. This is a win-win social
innovation strategy as it not only creates value
in the communities, but Toyota also learn frompeople they partner with and bring learnings
back into its business (Mazzoni, 2014).
All in all, this simple test case illustrates thefeasibility of using the proposed framework to
capture the essence of responsible innovation in
Toyota. The proposed framework can underpin apractical and systematic approach for firms to better
understand and support the governance of
responsible innovation.

ISSN 2189-9592

Responsible innovation has a strong
moral basis. In other words, innovations should
happen in an ethical and democratic way whilestaying economic competitive during times ofgreat socio-economic challenges (Nerlich &McLeod, 2016). The proposed framework (seeTable 5) captures the essence of responsible
innovation. The framework provides anumbrella linking various aspects of therelationship between products/innovation andsociety, public engagement, gender equality,
ethics, and governance. The framework wedeveloped is not the ‘silver bullet’ for responsible
innovation. Traditionally, managers are too
preoccupied with the product of innovation. The
framework seeks to shape a constructive
engagement between questions of innovations
and responsibility, and allows managers tocollectively embed science, social, ethic,
governance, and equality early in the innovation
process.
Clearly, researches about RI will become
more prominent in the future because scienceand innovation have become very complicated at
the global level and need to be addressedcollectively. Science and technology, which was
the focus of firms have lost the potential to create
responsible innovation. Japan had learned tobroaden the concept of innovation to encompass
policy that lead to encompass the social spherei.e. social ecology, society and individual. We
have shown Japanese companies developed
innovative and social responsible products
through merging and integration of different
technologies/science and business models. The
inclusion of stakeholders inside and outside thecompanies, enables responsible innovation to
occur at record speed.
Although, the concept of RI is
straightforward and convincing, to put into
practice firms need to be prepared to makechanges in several operations strategy(4) Discussion and conclusion
27

Journal of Japanese Management Vol.3, No.1, November 2018

dimensions(structural,
infrastructural,cultural). Far too frequently innovation andengagement with the wider communities iscarried out relatively informally. A formal
framework provides a mechanism for mitigating
this tendency by allowing managers/researchers
to decompose the complexity of RI into
manageable steps. Managers had different
mental models of how their organisations,products and services operated, and might
therefore make different opinions on the possible
RI strategies. The Toyota illustrative case (Table6) indicates that the framework is feasible andcan be applied to undertake responsible
innovation analysis systematically. It enables
managers to explore innovation dimension andsustainability in depth while concurrently
maintaining a visual and transparent trail,
enhancing the rigour of the processes. The
framework allows managers to visualise the RI
dimensions and relationships with stakeholders.
The framework provides a formal tool for
iterative group discussion, where managers
learn and modifying their understanding of RI,
ideas, beliefs and even their thought processes
over time. Application of the framework canprovide a number of insights into aspects of RI
which add to academic understanding and could
form the basis of further work.

ISSN 2189-9592

framework against reality should be carried out.
In addition, a process to operationalise theframework is needed in order for practitioners
and academics to utilise the framework
effectively. Thus, a set of questions as well as
steps to apply the framework should be
developed.
Acknowledgements
This research was partially supported by
the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science(JSPS), Invitational Fellowships for Research inJapan (Long-term), L18560, and KAKENHI,
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A),
18H03824, from 2018 to 2019.
References
Beatty, S. (2018). “Taking a standardized
approach in pursuit of zero casualties
from traffic accidents”, https://driving.ca/
toyota/sponsored/auto-show/taking-astandardized-approach-in-pursuit-ofzero-causalities-from-traffic-accidents[t1]. Accessed on 9 October 2018.
Chung, L., Tan, K.H. (2017). "The unique
Chinese Innovation Pathways: Lessons
from Chinese Small and Medium Size
Manufacturing
Firms", International
Journal of Production Economics, 190,
80-87.
Li, H. H. J. K. & Tan, K. H. (2017). Transformative innovation: turning commoditised
products into radically high-valued
products. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, 1-14.

(5) Limitations and future directions
We have argued how the proposed
framework can facilitate the generation andcommunication of RI. One limitation is that theframework is based on the discourse of literatureand best practices and have not been empiricallytested. The other obvious limitation is that theeconomic aspect of responsible innovation has
not been included in the framework. We hope
this paper will stimulate additional theory
building and conceptual development within the
RI discipline. Future research to test the RI

Mazzoni, M. (2014). “Toyota’s Social Innovation
Umbrella”.
https://www.triplepundit.com/2014/11/q
a-net-impact-14-toyota-uses-knowbetter-communities/ Accessed on 9
October 2018.

28

Journal of Japanese Management Vol.3, No.1, November 2018ISSN 2189-9592

innovation in Toyota? International

Meier, M., Tan, K. H., Lim, MK., Chung, L.,(2018). 'Unlocking Innovation in the
Sport Industry through Additive
Manufacturing’,
Business
Process
Management Journal. https://doi.org/10.
1108/BPMJ-10-2017-0285
Nerlich, B., & McLeod, C. (2016). The dilemmaof raising awareness “responsibly”: The
need to discuss controversial researchwith the public raises a conundrum forscientists: when is the right time to start
public debates? EMBO reports, 17(4),481-485.
Nintendo (2018). “Corporate Social Responsibleat Nintendo”. https://www.nintendo.com/corp/csr/index.jsp. Accessed on 3
October 2018.
OECD (2005). “ Oslo Manual - Guidelines forCollecting and Interpreting Innovation
Data”, 3rd edition, OECD Publishing,Paris.
Pham, S. (2018). ‘Toyota will invest billions in
new self-driving car company’, CNN
Business, March 2, 2018. https://money.
cnn.com/2018/03/02/news/companies/toyota-self-driving-car-company/index.html
Proctor, T., Tan, K.H., Fuse, K. (2004). “Cracking
the Incremental Paradigm of JapaneseCreativity” Creativity and Innovation
Management Journal. 13(4), 207-215.
Rakuten (2018). https://global.rakuten.com/corp/
sustainability/. Accessed on 4th Aug
2018.
Shiseido (2018). https://www.shiseidogroup.com/
sustainability/. Accessed on 4 August
2018.
Stilgoe, J., Owen, R. & Macnaghten, P. (2013).
Developing a framework for responsible
innovation. Research Policy, 42(9), 15681580.
Tan, K. H. & Perrons, R. K. (2009). Is
globalisation an enabler of radical

Journal of Entrepreneurship andInnovation Management, 9 (3), 285-298.
Tan, K. H., Zhan, Y., Ji, G., Ye, F. & Chang, C.
(2015). Harvesting big data to enhance
supply chain innovation capabilities: An
analytic infrastructure based on
deduction graph. International Journalof Production Economics, 165, 223-233.
Tan, K. H. & Zhan, Y. (2016), "Improving New
Product Development Using Big Data: A
Case Study of an Electronics
Company", R and D Management, 1-13.
Toyota (2018). https://www.toyota.co.jp/jpn/
ustainability/csr/index.html/. Accessedon 4 October 2018.
Toyota Global (2018) “The Future of Mobility
Realizing a Smart Mobility Society”.
https://www.yoyota-global/com/innovation/
intelligent_transport_system/mobility/.
Accessed on 9 October 2018.
Von Schomberg, Rene (2011). ‘Prospects forTechnology Assessment in a frameworkof responsible research and innovation’in: Technikfolgen abschätzen lehren:

Bildungspotenziale transdisziplinärer
Methode, 39-61, Wiesbaden: Springer
VS.
Xu, F. & Nash, W. R. (2013). The Structure of
Innovation. Kindai Management Review,
1, 105-115.
Yamada, T. (2008). Design Issues for Inverse
Manufacturing Systems in JapaneseCases. Northeast Decision Sciences
Institute Proceedings, 551-556.
Zavrl, M. S. & Zeren, M.T. (2010). “Sustainability
of
Urban
Infrastructures”,
Sustainability, 2(9), 2950-2964.

(Selected: September 19, 2018)(Accepted: October 20, 2018)29