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The Role of Higher Education in Creating Socially Responsible Innovations: A Case Study of the EIT Food RIS Consumer Engagement Labs Project
AbstractThe chapter discusses the concept of socially responsible innovations and links it to the third mission of universities, understood in terms of social engagement of the higher education institutions. It presents the case study of the EIT Food RIS Consumer Engagement Labs project (funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, EIT, in the framework of Regional Innovation Scheme, RIS). The project has been rolled out to 14 European countries. It serves as a successful example of universities orchestrating the process of co-creation of new products, which involves consumers and producers. The process aimed to address societal challenges and serve the needs of a vulnerable group of senior citizens by developing new food products, proposed by the elderly consumers and matching their specific needs and requirements. It looks at the project experiences through the lenses of inclusion and responsiveness, which allow the universities to combine social responsibility with commercially attractive innovations. Universities involved in the project were playing the role of “interpreters”, linking companies and consumers, facilitating the creative activities and ensuring the methodological and ethical soundness of the co-creation processes.
Evolution of motivation in co‐creation: Recruit, retain and complete in a project on new food product co‐creation
The study explores the motivation of consumers to join and participate in new product co‐creation, distinguishing between recruitment before, retainment during and finalizing of a co‐creation project. The research is based on follow‐up interviews with participants in a project covering the initial stages of new food product development (i.e., idea generation, idea screening and concept development) involving older consumers and carried out in a physical environment. Different motivation factors were deemed important by consumers before, during and at the closure of the project. Consumers joined the project motivated by curiosity and desire to meet new people. While performing the creative tasks, they continued the engagement due to the positive anticipation and enjoyment of new activities, as well as positive feedback loops. At the closure of the project, the usefulness of outcomes and the received recognition became important and strengthened the perceived creative self‐efficacy of participants. The findings offer useful recommendations for organizers of co‐creation, enabling the recruitment and retainment of consumers who could successfully deliver creative outputs and complete the project. The study offers novel insights relevant to participatory innovations looking at the temporal dimension of motivation to co‐create and highlights the dynamic changes in salience of the motivation factors.