New Paper Outlines Ethical Framework for Business Innovation—Features an Interview with Anne M. Mulcahy  
- June 30, 2008

Charlottesville, VA –  Today the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics published a paper aimed at helping business leaders create innovative products and services in a responsible and ethical manner.

The paper, Innovation, Ethics and Business, is the latest edition in the Institute's Bridge Paper series which conveys concepts from leading edge academic research in the field of business ethics in a format that today’s managers can integrate into their everyday decisions and actions.

Innovation, Ethics and Business—authored by Institute Fellow and assistant professor of business and economics at The Catholic University of America Kirsten E. Martin—proposes an ethical framework for executives based on six Rules of Innovation:

1. Innovations are new to a community.

2. Many people are affected by and have an effect on an innovation.

3. Innovations disrupt the status quo.

4. Innovations are a shared responsibility.

5. Successful innovations require continual modifications.

6. Features matter.

How these rules operate in practice is demonstrated in the paper through a case study analysis of  Google, Inc.'s entrance into the China search engine market. The paper recommends that innovations should be assessed according to the mutual value that they create for the firm, its stakeholders and communities which they impact.

"By viewing the innovative process as bringing together technology and communities," Professor Martin says, "the innovation and its consequences become a shared responsibility." The community has a responsibility to use the technology within a given range of permissible behaviors and to incorporate rules and norms to support the technology. The innovating firm, however, has a responsibility to understand the community into which the innovation is being introduced.

The paper includes a Thought Leader Commentary™ with Anne M. Mulcahy, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Xerox Corporation.

The article addresses some of the key issues in innovating ethically in business, including challenges such as: ensuring that inventions ‘match’ the needs of the market; monitoring and adjusting for unintended consequences of innovations; and assessing the overall impact of innovations.

"The bridge between invention and innovation ... is under-standing which of our technologies, our inventions, is the best fit for the customer’s unique needs and circumstances,"  Mulcahy says, "we can then deliver the best solution—something innovative—for the customer."

Mulcahy sees a strong connection between diversity and successful innovation. "What better way to ensure that marketplace diversity is truly recognized, considered,
and valued," she says, "than building it right into your own infrastructure."

A complete version of Innovation, Ethics and Business is available on the Institute Website at www.corporate-ethics.org.

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About the Bridge Papers^TM Series
Institute Bridge Papers^TM put the best thinking of academic and business leaders into the hands of practicing managers. Bridge Papers^TM convey concepts from leading edge research in the field of business ethics in a format that today's managers can integrate into their daily decision making. Bridge Papers™ are part of the Institute’s outreach efforts and electronic copies of series’ titles are available for non-commercial educational use on a royalty-free basis on the Institute Web site
(www.corporate-ethics.org).
 

About the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics
The Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics is an independent entity established in partnership with Business Roundtable—an association of chief executive officers of leading corporations with a combined workforce of more than 10 million employees and $4.5 trillion in annual revenues—and leading academics from America’s best business schools. The Institute brings together leaders from business and academia to fulfill its mission to renew and enhance the link between ethical behavior and business practice through executive education programs, practitioner-focused research and outreach.
 

More information on the Institute can be found at www.corporate-ethics.org.

Contact: Brian Moriarty (434) 982-2323 – moriartyb@darden.virginia.edu