Inclusive Research and Innovation in Engineering–Theory Building from Five Case Studies

Considering the diversity of human beings in research and innovation projects is important for societal inclusion. Yet especially STEM research and innovation projects only occasionally consider all human beings potentially affected by their innovation. In this paper, we therefore investigate whether STEM researchers and innovators in engineering consider the diversity of human beings in their projects and how this changes their technological and business success. We answer our research questions using an explorative theory-building approach in which we analyze twenty interviews with project leaders and team members of five research and innovation project teams working on high tech STEM innovations. Their efforts are funded within Horizon 2020 framework. We find that none of the project teams considered the diversity of human beings at project inception to start with. At the same time, STEM researchers and innovators agreed on the importance of and started considering the diversity of human beings after learning about the responsibility of research and innovation from social scientists. Furthermore, we show that open innovation practices like co-creation and knowledge sharing enhance the consideration of the diversity of human beings whereas increased entrepreneurial mindset helps STEM researchers and innovators to see the business potential of considering the diversity of human beings in their research and innovation projects. After all we show that inclusivity in STEM research and innovation broadens the search horizon, may help to develop insights and solutions that can be more responsible, more ethically, and more socially acceptable.