Corporate Responsible Innovation for Sustainability: Toward Firm‐Level Measurements for Process and Outcomes

ABSTRACT Whereas the concept of responsible innovation (RI) has attracted increasing academic attention in recent years, little is known about how this policy‐linked agenda has been implemented in a competitive environment. We argue that building a firm‐level measure of the current innovation practices of corporations could be a valuable step toward exploring sustainable innovation practices. This study develops firm‐level measures of RI in corporations by analysing corporate annual reports with machine learning techniques. We employed word embedding and structural topic modeling to identify 16 topics related to RI actions and challenges in corporate innovation processes and outcomes. Our findings reveal that RI in competitive environments is still in its early stages, with more emphasis on ethical processes than on proactively creating social value through innovation outcomes. The findings point to the need for greater strategic alignment and awareness of RI in corporations, supporting a move beyond a “do no harm” approach toward proactively addressing societal challenges through innovation. This study contributes to understanding how RI is currently implemented in business practices and identifies areas for further development to enable innovation that creates both economic and social value.