There is an increasing awareness amongst policymakers, organizations, and civil society that innovation must be directed toward societal benefits, and potential harms must be anticipated and mitigated. Responsible innovation (RI), which aims to integrate societal and ethical interventions early in the innovation pipeline, before emerging technologies reach commercial applications, is one such approach to this challenge. However, research reveals tensions that stifle corporate efforts to apply RI in practice. In response to these, researchers suggest that RI is better suited to application on an ecosystem level, rather than an organizational one. This paper responds to this call by interrogating how the tensions faced at the organizational level can be superseded by the implementation of RI as part of knowledge ecosystem orchestration activities. We offer three propositions for orchestrators to develop robust and responsible knowledge ecosystems for emerging technologies.
