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This chapter, based on a sociological approach, addresses the ethical issues of surveillance research from the perspective of the profound transformations that science and innovation are undergoing, as part of a broader shift from modern to post-modern society, affecting also other major social institutions (such as government, religion, family, and public administration). The change occurring in the science and technology system is characterised by diminishing authority, uncertainty about internal mechanisms and standards, and a declining and increasingly difficult access to resources. Such changes, also related to globalisation and new digital technologies, have transformed the way research is conducted and disseminated. Research is now more open and its results more easily accessible to citizens.

Scientific research is also put under increased public scrutiny, while, at the same time, public distrust and disaffection towards science is rising. In such a context, it is more important than ever to make sure that research activities are not compromised by fraudulent and unethical practices. The legitimate expectations of citizens to enjoy their rights, including the ability to protect their private sphere, are growing. Scientific and technological development is deeply interrelated with the widespread awareness of these rights and the possibility of exercising them, but it produces also new risks, while a widespread sense of insecurity increases. The digital revolution, while improving people’s quality of life, offers at the same time new opportunities for crime and terrorism, which in turn has produced a demand to strengthen security systems through increasingly advanced and intrusive surveillance technologies. Misconduct in the field of surveillance may not only undermine the quality of research, but also further impair society’s trust in research and science as well as in the State and its institutions.

This study aims to examine the influence of organizational flexibility (OF) and shared vision (SV) on sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) with the mediation role of responsible innovation (RI) in the manufacturing industry of a developing country. Furthermore, big data analytics capability (BDAC) serves as a moderator between RI and SCA.

The study's hypotheses are investigated using the structural equation modeling (SEM) method. Through simple random sampling, information was gathered from 247 owners/managers of manufacturing SMEs.

The results elucidate that OF and SV significantly determine RI and SCA. Moreover, RI significantly mediates between SV, OF and SCA. Besides, RI significantly determines SCA. BDAC significantly leads to SCA. Finally, BDAC significantly moderates between RI and SCA.

RI is crucial for manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to gain SCA and BDAC is important to address the changing demands of consumers for environment-friendly products. This study gives the public an overview of the different degrees to which SMEs are embracing RI and BDAC; with more environment-friendly initiatives, the natural environment will become more sustainable. Environmental sustainability will benefit each individual living in society.

This study adds value to the existing literature by focusing on predictors that affect SCA. Using dynamic capability theory, this initial study examines the influence of SV and OF on SCA and RI as mediators. Furthermore, BDAC is used as a moderating variable between RI and SCA. Managers, students and researchers can benefit from this study.

Users’ role in co-designing products has changed: from influencing outcomes to influencing development/design; from standardizing to customising products/outcomes; from participating to engaging designers/developers. Although this participatory design (PD) approach makes users’ role more prominent it has been under-utilised for the technological development of products for people with neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDD). The purpose of this paper is to present a responsible research and innovation example, in conversation skills training for people with autism, using virtual reality (VR).

The PD approach was adopted during the iterative development of the virtual world and training materials. Multiple baseline design was utilised consisting of three participants on the mild/moderate end of the autism spectrum. Participants joined 15–16 sessions over four phases of structured conversations, delivered both face-to-face and virtually.

The feedback sessions revealed that the participants felt VR has the potential in providing training for people with autism spectrum disorders. Moreover, they thought delivering the training in three formats could enhance their learning, since PowerPoints, videos and chatbot would represent teaching, showing and practicing, respectively.

PD promotes a “one-size-fits-one approach”, cultivating agile, inclusive, responsive design approaches for people with NDDs, so that outcome meets their needs and preferences, while VR training allows for a wider implementation, benefiting a wider range of learners.

The RRI approach increases the inclusion of people with disabilities in the decision-making process through dialogue with “experts”, making their role more visible, fostering an ethical and sustainable innovation process, leading to more desirable outcomes.

This research seeks to identify evidence of innovation elements in the implementation of a sustainable development ecosystem in the HE environment. For the purposes of this investigation, the use of developmental evaluation has been deemed appropriate to fully explore the depths of the topic.

The research follows a qualitative approach of inductive reasoning. For the purpose of this developmental evaluation, the collection of information from several stakeholders has been pursued in the study. Both a semi-structured interview and documents analysis were used.

Different awareness levels among logistics faculty members, while the incentives given are minimal. Availability of grants and lack of tenure are some of the reasons raised. Industry is not cooperative in providing placements/internships restricting students of industry experience. Internationalisation is slow and international collaborations limited. Limited freedom in topical discussions and their implications to learning.

The research has considered possible limitations and used other methods for triangulation of the findings.

Low awareness on the implementation of pedagogical approaches for innovation. Not all faculty can be innovative (owing to current practice) neither they are incentivised to be so. Government spending is very low on R&D – 0.136 of the GDP in 2016. The industry is not ready for University-Business Collaborations, therefore achieving a low theory to practice ratio for students.

In the context in which the research has taken place (HE in Oman), there has been no evaluation (and more so developmental evaluation) previously implemented. Additionally, a longitudinal study, integrated as part of an ESD system targeted to innovation could increase the innovation capacity of the country on the international innovation index.

Nowadays, fast and unpredictable changes are common in most countries. Organizations are trying to survive in an environment that shows obvious signs of wear and tear. At the same time, sustainability has been arousing an obvious interest for years, in both the business and academy fields. The global perspective of the sustainable phenomenon as well as the objectives and goals to be achieved have turned into the Agenda for Sustainable Development, with the horizon set in 2030. This chapter is part of SDG 9, which proposes innovation as a means to contribute to sustainability and create wealth in nations; thus, sustainable innovation constitutes a basic and growing paradigm, which makes it possible to achieve SDG 9. Furthermore, the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on companies and their way of innovation managing is exposed. Finally, guidelines are proposed so that organizations can be more responsible and sustainable.

Successful knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) is necessary to ensure the competitiveness and growth of national innovation systems. In this regard, technology transfer offices (TTOs) are becoming indispensable in their capacity as intermediaries between science, policy, industry, and the public. The purpose of this paper is to examine the strategies and operations of particularly productive transfer offices in five different countries in order to account for the high levels of transfer activity.

To this end, the authors interviewed 34 senior KTT managers in these offices. The collected protocols were analysed in three phases. First, the authors extracted and organised the key characteristics of the transfer practices by applying rigorous method of open-end, qualitative content analysis. The authors then enhanced the thus gathered descriptive statistics and ultimately developed a transfer office typology by building on the concept of attribute space.

The analysis suggests two ideal types of transfer offices, distinguishable in terms of their intertwined characteristics such as their goals, practices, sources of income, and positions within their associated organisations. While the primarily state-funded common good type would seek benefits to the public, the self-financed entrepreneurial type would pursue commercial success. The former would therefore create opportunities for disseminating knowledge and strengthening the local innovation ecosystem, while the latter would scout for promising ideas and cultivate relationships with industry.

The goal was to uncover the individual characteristics of the offices under study, and the relationships between these characteristics, that can help explain these offices’ exceptional productivity. This study is the first to propose a TTO typology, which can support interorganisational and international transfer collaboration. The findings provide empirical evidence for the theoretical Quadruple Helix model of the innovation system and have implications for research and practice.

Many companies invest in innovations because of the inherent benefits, and research on innovation has increased over the year. However, the vast majority of research papers deals with purely technical matters. There seem to be growing concerns over ethical issues in adopting innovations in the construction industry. This extant review of literature aims to analyse the interrelations between the concepts of ethics and innovations in construction research to understand the advances of current scientific production and future lines of research.

Thus, this work presents a bibliometric analysis covering articles obtained from the Web of Science Core Collection Database published between 1995 and May 2021. A sample size of 5,786 research papers relevant to the study was evaluated using VOSviewer software.

The results of the analysis shed light on the evolution of the connection between the two concepts. The study highlighted Heng Li as the most productive author. The country with the most publications and citations is China. The most productive institution is the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The results revealed a limited intellectual exchange and lack of cohesion characterising the two concepts (ethics and innovation), resulting in a situation whereby innovation-related researchers tend to follow personal trajectories in isolation from ethics-related researchers in the construction field.

This is probably the most comprehensive scientometric analysis ever conducted to examine the theoretical relationship between ethics and innovation in construction. This study adds to the so far limited knowledge in the field and provides insights for future research. Overall, this review may spur future research on dyad investigation of ethics and innovative related themes in construction such as ethics and sustainability, ethics and sensor-based technology and ethics and innovative safety approach.

Intellectual capital (IC) has been shown to play a crucial role in promoting competitive success among cooperatives as well as in other types of organizations. However, cooperatives are rarely included in this line of research. This paper aims to analyze how IC in agrifood cooperatives influences their prominence by fostering responsible research and innovation (RRI), reputation and performance.

A theoretical model was developed based on a literature review, and a quantitative study was conducted, including a representative sample of the current most prominent Spanish agrifood cooperatives. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the validity of constructs, path relationships and recent advances in the predictive model assessment.

This study’s findings show the specific role of human capital (HC) for enhancing social and structural capital in cooperatives. It was concluded that there is a need to revise and reconsider the role-played by IC in the cooperative movement.

The main practical contribution is to offer a specific vision of IC for agrifood cooperatives in order to maximize their market prominence. Since the study was conducted in Spain and based on a cross-sectional research approach, even though the new methodological tool partial least squares (PLS) predict was used, the authors cannot affirm whether IC will have the long-term expected effects as assumed in this research and in all contexts of the agrifood industry.

This is the first empirical study that has examined IC in agrifood cooperatives in Spain, with attention focused on the role of HC as a predictor of market success.

The promotion of autonomous vehicles introduces privacy and security risks, underscoring the pressing need for responsible innovation implementation. To more effectively address the societal risks posed by autonomous vehicles, considering collaborative engagement of key stakeholders is essential. This study aims to provide insights into the governance of potential privacy and security issues in the innovation of autonomous driving technology by analyzing the micro-level decision-making processes of various stakeholders.

For this study, the authors use a nuanced approach, integrating key stakeholder theory, perceived value theory and prospect theory. The study constructs a model based on evolutionary game for the privacy and security governance mechanism of autonomous vehicles, involving enterprises, governments and consumers.

The governance of privacy and security in autonomous driving technology is influenced by key stakeholders’ decision-making behaviors and pivotal factors such as perceived value factors. The study finds that the governmental is influenced to a lesser extent by the decisions of other stakeholders, and factors such as risk preference coefficient, which contribute to perceived value, have a more significant influence than appearance factors like participation costs.

This study lacks an investigation into the risk sensitivity of various stakeholders in different scenarios.

The study delineates the roles and behaviors of key stakeholders and contributes valuable insights toward addressing pertinent risk concerns within the governance of autonomous vehicles. Through the study, the practical application of Responsible Innovation theory has been enriched, addressing the shortcomings in the analysis of micro-level processes within the framework of evolutionary game.