Introduction - Inclusive Innovation Made Practical

Innovation is known to be one of the most important determinants affecting long-term economic performance, and governments are known to devote significant number of resources on policies focusing on innovation. According to Lee (2023), innovation is fundamentally a disruptive activity where the gains are unevenly distributed as the creation or adoption of new goods, services, and processes might create new winners and losers visibly, where some segments of society benefit from their needs being satisfied, while others remain excluded. Mainstream innovation has been aimed at middle- and high-income consumer, by producing new products, and providing services that improve the welfare of consumers and/or producing new processes that improve the productivity of different producers. By focusing on higher- income consumers rather than on marginalised consumers and on economic development rather than on social development need, mainstream innovation has been riddled with inequality (OECD, 2012). In addition, different actors from entrepreneurs, consumers, government bodies, policymakers etc., are directly or indirectly engaged in the process of innovation as in reality the innovation occurs as a result of the interrelationship between different actors giving rise to inequality in the innovative ecosystem warranting the need for inclusive innovation.

Inclusive Concepts

What is Inclusive Innovation?

Some authors have defined inclusive innovation as follows:
According to Foster and Heeks (2013a, pp. 335) inclusive innovation has been defined simply as ‘the inclusion within some aspect of innovation of groups who are currently marginalised’.

George et al., (2012, pp. 663) has defined inclusive innovation as “the development and implementation of new ideas which aspire to create opportunities that enhance social and economic wellbeing for disenfranchised members of society”.

OECD (2015, p.5), has defined inclusive innovation in a way that it is simple but precise, “inclusive innovation projects are initiatives that directly serve the welfare of lower-income and excluded groups”.

Based on our review, we provide a holistic definition for inclusive innovation taking into account the existing views and paving way for further exploration. We, define inclusive innovation as “an approach that should involve the inclusion of women, youth, disabled, ethnic minorities or informal sector SME entrepreneurs in the process of innovation from initial idea generation to production/consumption of any type of innovation”. The emphasis, is to make inclusion a part of any and all innovation policies and strategies, so that it benefits economic development of the region.

How was this definition developed?

An extensive literature review was carried out to understand the conceptualisation of inclusive innovation. We interacted with several business leaders, policymakers, and key players in the innovation ecosystem to understand the different barriers and the need for an inclusive innovation sourcebook with different resources.

Why is it Important to Understand Inclusive Innovation?

Rising economic inequality is known to have significant gender, race, ethnicity, and generational effects (Bramwell, 2021). Inclusive innovation focuses on the local ecosystem where people and their related networks serve as a primary source of innovation activity (Oksanen & Hautamäki, 2015). However, research has suggested that in most of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, access to opportunities are not equally distributed amongst all potential or nascent entrepreneurs (Brush et al., 2019). If majority of people are excluded from innovative activities, then producing a human centred solution is not always possible and outcomes of innovation will not meet the needs of people.

How is Inclusive Innovation different from other related concepts

Social innovation is a process of collective creation that aims to achieve productivity, business competitiveness and the creation of social values. According to Echeverri (2008) it is considered an action or intervention that involves making non- orthodox changes in the production of service or goods that could be reproduced to have an impact on the well-being of part of the society (Morales 2008). However, the services or goods though impact part of the society focusing on social needs it might not necessarily be inclusive to all, differentiating it from inclusive innovation.

Inclusive development includes marginalized people, sectors and countries in social, political and economic processes for increased human well- being, social and environmental sustainability, and empowerment (Gupta et al., 2015). However, the outcomes of inclusive development does not always focus on the innovation aspect differentiating it from inclusive innovation.

Responsible innovation has been defined as “an attempt to govern research and innovation in order to include all the stakeholders and the public in the early stages of research and development. The inclusion of different actors and the public is, in turn, meant to increase the possibilities to anticipate and discern how research and innovation can or may benefit society as well as prevent any negative consequences from happening” (Budget et al., p.15). However, Inclusive innovation, focuses directly on the disadvantaged population that benefits from the innovation process.

Inclusive growth is defined as “economic growth that creates opportunity for all segments of the population and distributes the dividends of increased prosperity, both in monetary and nonmonetary terms, fairly across society” (https://www.oecd.org/inclusive-growth/). However, growth need not necessarily be the result of innovation opportunities thereby differentiating it from inclusive innovation.