Responsible Innovation and the Commercialisation of Quantum Technologies

Abstract

As governments worldwide seek to encourage innovation, there is a growing concern for doing so in a way that fosters competitive technological advancement while generating societal benefits. Responsible innovation (RI) is one approach to this challenge, integrating ethical, social, and inclusive values into the development and governance of emerging technologies. While limitations to RI adoption in commercial organizations are well understood, it remains unclear how or why RI may be systematically adopted in a commercialization context. This thesis argues that this challenge cannot be resolved without first grappling with a foundational problem: the meaning of RI is not fixed but continuously (re)produced through the interactions of diverse actors whose values are shaped by competing institutional logics and socio-political contexts. It advances a social constructionist analysis of RI in a commercialization context, reframing the challenge from an implementation problem to a meaning-making problem across competing normative worlds. This thesis addresses a critical gap in RI research by demonstrating empirically how RI's meaning is contested and stabilized through the discursive and institutional dynamics of a specific innovation system. In doing so, it directs attention to what is ultimately at stake in the governance of emerging technologies – not just how innovation is managed, but whose values shape it and whose futures it serves.