Fostering Inclusive Innovation. The Role of Universities and Private Businesses

Inclusive innovation is seen as a means to counteract the issue of growing global inequality. Particularly universities and private businesses are engaged with its promotion. However, the concept of inclusive innovation has deficiencies concerning the operationalisation and measurement. In default of extensive primary data, a set of a hundred and two inclusive innovations has been gathered from twenty-one sources and thereupon analysed. The findings confirm that inclusive innovation is a prominent issue in developing countries, in particular. In this sample, universities and private businesses contribute to the generation of inclusive innovations primarily at the level of addressing a marginalised group with the outcome of an innovative process. Innovations that include disadvantaged individuals in the innovative process tend to be initiated without the involvement of the two actors. These process inclusive innovations are more likely to be supported by universities than by private businesses. In general, more attention should be paid to innovators from marginalised groups of society. Thus, all actors of the innovation system can contribute to the fostering of inclusive innovation and the reduction of inequalities