The path towards responsible innovation implementation in Portuguese agricultural and textile SMES

Abstract

Environmental and social issues are an increasingly pressing reality within the contemporary world. Traditional stakeholders have been replaced by change drivers who demand a better answer to society’s and environment’s current and future needs. As a result, firms’ strategies are pushed in different directions. Responsible Innovation (RI) has presented firms an option to address these issues while avoiding the rising of new ones. Despite the motivations behind RI implementation, taking that path might mean facing significant challenges. Small and Medium-Enterprises (SMEs) are a particularly interesting context to study such motivations and challenges, which may drive responsible and innovative solutions. For that purpose, 17 semi-structured interviews were conducted with professionals from Portuguese agricultural and textile SMEs. This study adopted a qualitative content analysis based on Gioia’s methodology. Overall, findings reveal that SMEs have significant motivations to pursue RI, acknowledging its main benefits such as efficiency enhancement or increased competitiveness. However, they often see their initiatives constrained by the lack of public support and financial or human resources. Nonetheless, this study shows that stakeholder engagement in decision-making processes is vital to improve innovation along the way, but mostly to ensure its successful implementation in the end. This study presents several theoretical contributions and managerial implications. First, SMEs believe that RI value co-creation allows them to efficiently reshape future, innovative products. Second, compliance with certifications’ and clients’ requirements is key to collaborate with RI-aligned partners. Third, negotiation capacity is essential in stakeholder management, particularly facilitated under common-language, open-minded or family-based contexts.

Date of Award	14 Oct 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Filipa Serpa Pinto (Supervisor)