Corporate Responsible Innovation in Science and Technology Organisations: Including Indigenous Worldviews

Science and technology organisations are increasingly held accountable for addressing global challenges. When such organisations attempt to tackle the “wicked” problems of poverty, hunger, environmental degradation, or climate change, they tend to adopt a classical paradigm or “Western science” approach and run the risk of intensifying or generating new problems. In this chapter, we argue that wicked problems have a better chance of being addressed when such organisations draw on a broader range of worldviews and approaches. The chapter provides a New Zealand exemplar of an inclusive endeavour, whereby an organisation strategically implements an indigenous innovation policy into its core science and technology activities. While the case is singular, there are few empirical models of how inclusive policies operate in science and technology organisations, particularly when such science is upstream or at the ideation phase. This longitudinal study offers pointers that other science organisations may find both useful and inspirational.