The evolution of the Blog 'Innovation, Risk and Governance' 
( 31 Gennaio 2005 )
( scritto da
Daniele Navarra 
)
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This essay is a round up of the themes and issues developed in the blog 'Innovation, Risk and Governance' over the past few months. It is a collection of quotes from the various posts creating the established and emergent areas of interest for the development of the ongoing discussion. For each of the aspects mentioned below, we point to the attention of the readers a series of quotes and related links which constitute what is considered as being the 'backbone' of the blog.
The quotes have been categorised following the emergent set of issues that are to be developed from now on, and in particular:
1) The innovations brought about by the information economy and society and related changes in enterprise patterns, organisation and development.
2) Issues of governance of innovation and associated risks in the area of international development, business standards and regulation.
3) The model of reference of the guiding principles actualising the transition to a globalised, multinational society and the role of technology as mobile knowledge.
Proceeding in order, therefore we would like to point ou the following about each one of the issues above.
1) The innovations brought about by the information economy and society and related changes in enterprise patterns, organisation and development.
'What is now widely known as the 'Information Society', based on the capillary diffusion of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), is a major influence to the changing social and economic circumstances of today's business and organisational realities. [.] Not only for the impact that their intertwined effects are likely to have on the performance of business firms, and consequently in supporting sustained economic growth, but also to benefit from the continuous drive for innovation that a better educated population can make reality in all areas of social organisation.' From: Innovation, Industry and the Role of Researchers in Italy
'Even if we cannot affirm that ICTs have been neglected by the literature on industrial innovation, it is perceived that in such literature not enough attention was given to the relationships between innovation and the information society. That is also because the methodology of these studies tends to offer a general theory on innovation whose evolution is somehow separated from history.' [.] 'Thus, in such society the dimension of responsibility is essential, and 'governing the innovation' becomes imperative.' From: ICTs, Governance and Development: understanding risks and challenges
2) Issues of governance of innovation and associated risks in the area of international development, business standards and regulation.
'Innovation is considered an essential characteristic for progress understood as social and economic development.'
'Innovations, irrespective of their source or domain, can have two effects in the contexts where they take place. One is advancing progress and the social good, say by formulating better or new processes, structures and/or syntheses which can improve living conditions of human beings and their quality of life. The other can be harm, destruction and agony. Examples of the former include advances in water management systems, coordination processes which reduce leakage of resources away from non productive uses and many applications of information technology and computing in science which, among other things, have led to the mapping of the human genome. The latter would comprise the atomic bomb, or as Francis Fukuyama and Piero Bassetti have pointed out, terrorists transforming civil airplanes into rockets.'
'Whereas in the past the main focus was on product specific and/or other 'physical' innovations, the novelty is that innovations related to intellectual property, software and services have become the most debated and controversial themes for countries adopting, implementing or renewing their legislation in relation to intellectual property and trade in services. ' From: Conceptualising Innovation: A theoretical and practical agenda
'Innovations carry with themselves an implicit or explicit element of risk. Since not only the consequences of applying new methods of thinking and doing is not predictable, thus generating risks and side effects, but also the way in which the innovation will spread, diffuse and be used is not controllable even when risk management techniques are used. Following Claudio Ciborra's extensive study 'From Control to Drift' and the forthcoming evaluation of risk in the creation of large scale information infrastructures, he explains that attempts to control risks or their occurrence generate in turn new risks and challenges that can ramify into outcomes which were neither originally thought of, nor predictable in the first place.' From: Conceptualising Risk: A theoretical and practical agenda
'I have been concerned about governance of international business standards. Here are my thoughts: The article raised issues that will become increasingly significant in defining international commerce and related exchanges. I would dichotomize the issues into human disasters and financial disasters. The human tragedies are those related to life while the financials disasters are those that do not involve life but rather financial plundering, misrepresentation or other criminal activities. I believe that both of these "disasters" will require international governance standards.' From: On the Governance of International Business Standards, a letter by Sunil Bedi
'The question of governance then takes a new shape in relation to jointly owned initiatives. It is not any longer about a dynamic rivalry between the two types (and until recently antithetic forms of governing and organising resources and activities) is not any longer a matter of appartenance to one or the other 'front' since, at in least in terms of governance, there are many growing similarities, or at least a convergence. In nuce this is about the 'commercialisation' of government and the 'social responsibilisation' of firms.' From: Conceptualising Governance: A theoretical and practical agenda
3) The model of reference of the guiding principles actualising the transition to a globalised, multinational society and the role of technology as mobile knowledge.
'The context we refer to for the term governance is necessarily global. Governance is generally understood as a broad process affecting the collective decision-making roles and procedures, management and authority relationships amongst social and economic agents involving multiple jurisdictions and domains. In each of these, there is a divergence of opinion, knowledge and information which limit the options available to each party to reach the optimal (decision, investment, choice, strategy, .) and therefore second best procedures (or contracts) are used to reach agreement. Governance is about governing and therefore cannot be isolated from the notion of political responsibility in all areas in which delegated authority performs decision-making.' From: Conceptualising Governance: A theoretical and practical agenda
The challenges that these technologies pose are wide ranging and need to be addressed in consideration of at least the following elements:
- the decision-making structure in relation to the development, introduction and diffusion of these technologies on a large scale;
- the governance arrangements between the partners involved in their production, utilisation and delivery; and
- the communication of the responsibility for sharing risks and side-effects in case things go wrong.
'The lack of specific regulatory guidelines or disclosure obligations combined with the absence of standards is what furtherance the difficulty of dealing with the unsettling uncertainties that such innovation produces. Biotechnologies are also posing similar challenges, and although their promises are fascinating to address issues of famine and undernutrition in developing countries there is still great uncertainty in relation to their pharmacological, nutritional and quality benefits.' From: Bio- & Nano-Technology: who should decide and who will pay?
In conclusion, the relationship between the information society and innovation needs to be looked at in relation to the dynamic elements of such society within established structures and agencies of the economy. Networked communication as much as bio- and nano-technologies are a characteristic of such society. In particular for their convergence towards a pattern of co-evolving ecosystems, blurring to a certain extent the definitions of the separated areas in which these innovations evolve and take place over time. New patterns of risk are also emerging as a result, and the processes and structures of these innovations are global, not only for the reality of their interconnectedness, but also for the feeling that such risks generate on an otherwise unrelated congregation of individuals and organisations. Greater democratic participation in the process of cooperation to reach societal objectives over the long term could be desirable. As Piero Bassetti has highlighted in his lecture at the London School of Economics [*]: 'research and discovery are not the same thing as innovation. A discovery becomes innovation only when the increase in "knowledge" implicit in every discovery becomes technology and actuating power (that is, social capital) that the discovery implements'.
[*] Please click here to see the full text of Piero Bassetti's lecture at the London School of Economics
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[24/09/05]
