FOSTERING INNOVATION TO ADDRESS GRAND CHALLENGES

Technological innovation has always been a significant enabler of value creation, improved competitiveness, and economic growth. It has also contributed to the taming of

the impact of long-standing Grand Challenges, most notably, the ageing society, the environmentally unsustainable economic growth and the health impacts of climate change. These are important challenges as they have been blamed for causing economic inequality, social injustice and jeopardising the quality of life.

Although technological innovation has helped tackle several aspects of these long-standing challenges, the development and adoption of new and emerging technologies – such as big data, artificial intelligence, and vehicle autonomy – have created new challenges, many of which are of an ethical nature. For example, the advent of these advances poses dilemmas about the ownership and use of data; privacy concerns relating to face recognition; concerns about the devaluation of existing skills and infrastructure; and risks of spreading misinformation and threatening security.

The high opportunity cost of not addressing these long-standing and new challenges begs the question: how can innovation help solve major challenges without creating new ones? To answer this question, business organisations, their key stakeholders, governments, and the academic community can collaborate to develop new solutions and ensure that innovation is responsible and ethical. This may require moving beyond “traditional” forms of innovation to include organizational, business models, and social innovation. Thus, there are fruitful opportunities for management scholars to deliver impactful research on the managerial, organisational, and policy challenges inherent in developing the requisite innovations.

We welcome scholars to submit their research to the 2024 EURAM Conference, which focuses on fostering innovation to address long-standing and new Grand Challenges.