ABSTRACT
Businesses are increasingly focused on innovation in order to improve their financial performance and market share. At the same time, businesses seek to improve their corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies to gain greater social acceptance of their activities. Surprisingly, however, they have no strategic model that integrates CSR and innovation. The disconnect between these two aspects of corporate activities may lead to missed business opportunities, avoidable financial losses, as well as negative economic, environmental and societal impacts with associated damage to the company’s reputation. Therefore, the challenge is to innovate in a responsible way. An effective strategic approach to responsible corporate innovation would have sustainable outcomes for both business and society. This chapter proposes a new approach called strategic responsible innovation management (StRIM). The approach derives from, and broadens, the existing concepts of strategic CSR, the multi-stakeholder approach, CSR-driven innovation and innovation-driven CSR.
