Responsible innovation in Asia: A systematic review and an agenda for future research

Based on a comprehensive and structured literature analysis of 48 studies, this study explores and highlights the key research developments in the domain of responsible innovation in Asia. Accordingly, the paper critically analyses, maps, and structures responsible innovation research in Asia, and synthesizes the findings into an integrative conceptual framework that provides the basis for future scholars to further build on and practitioners to be guided by. Moreover, the study identifies several shortcomings in extant literature, proposes several avenues for further research, and provides best practice recommendations for researchers. This study revealed that majority studies were conducted in context of China, India and Korea. Contextually, there is a scope to extend research in other emerging Asian markets which are under-researched such as Pakistan. The key theories applied in the domain of responsible innovation in Asia were the resource-based view and stakeholders’ theory and major themes for the outcomes were discussed from social, environmental, and economic perspectives. Theoretically, there is a scope to apply and empirically validate other theories such as legitimacy and reputation-building perspectives and resource-dependency. Given the issue of responsible innovation is managerially important, studies should also examine underlying motivations for the responsible innovation, applying behavioral theory of firm.