Research on Responsible Innovation Mechanism Based on Prospect Theory

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Abstract

 Thank you for the opportunity to read your work. I think the paper deals with a substantial topic that could be relevant to the readers of Sustainability. However, I have few reservations with respect to the argumentation motivating the study, I believe that addressing these would improve the paper. For this reason, I  recommend the paper to be considered for publication in sustainability. My main concerns are listed below.

Abstract 

The abstract requires revision. It is unclear what the main gap the paper aims to fill, and I would recommend highlighting the main contribution in specific terms. Be specific with which appropriate government incentive or disincentive that could enhance firms and consumers engagement in responsible innovations. This can help better understand which specific policies of government promote responsible innovations.

Introduction

1.     In think that the introduction is in need of substantial improvement. First, it would be in the interest of readers if you will explain what responsible innovation is about. Secondly, you put forward some strong claims about the relatedness of responsible innovations to technological innovations, however most of these claims are not supported by referencing. I think the paper would benefit from strengthening its connection with the literature in this way. I would suggest being clearer on what responsible innovation is. In particular what makes responsible innovations different from the traditional innovation model.  

2.     There is no clear research gap identified, there is no research objective, no novelty of the study, what makes your study different from the numerous studies on the topic?. All these are the basis of the introduction. 

Literature review

Please desist from making unreferenced claims, if you make the claim that “some scholars” name but a few of such people for referencing. You need to focus on the description of your main theories, prospect theory, evolutionary game. 

“At present, few scholars have introduced prospect theory into the discussion of responsible innovation”. Reference such few scholars. 

What are the roles of stakeholders in the responsible innovation process? enterprises, government, and consumers? Why the focus on just these actors should be justified. Also show where these key actor roles overlap.

What factors or decisions influence responsible innovations should also be discussed as part of the literature reviews. 

Results 

The results are very interesting, and it will be better to be in-depth with the discussion. There should be a comparison with existing studies and be more justified. For instance, in section 4.2.5 why does government reward increases consumer involvement in responsible innovations? Be more specific with the form of reward, policies, incentives please

Same applies to section 4.2.2, 4.2.3 make the connections clear, why increased revenue increases prospect of responsible innovations. If possible, compare your result with existing research.

Conclusion

How does your result contribute to the prospect theory? what is the novel addition to this theory based on your results that we didn’t know?

Good luck with the revision, the core of the paper is really interesting.

All the best!

Author Response

1. Revision of Abstract: We clearly indicated the purpose of implementing responsible innovation, listed specific government incentives and penalties, and added the theoretical contribution and significance of this article.

2. Revision of the introduction: The definition and connotation of responsible innovation are explained, the difference between responsible innovation and traditional technological innovation is explained, and the research objective and novelty of this paper is clarified.

3. Revision of the literature review: We reorganized the literature, rewrote the literature review, added the concept of stakeholders and the relationship between responsible innovation and stakeholders, and explained the rationality of taking government, enterprise and consumer as the research object.

4. Revision of the result: the meaning of the graph is explained. For example, the meaning of the 4-2-5 graph is: the y axis represents the probability of consumers participating in responsible innovation, which can also be explained as the proportion of all consumers participating in responsible innovation, and the 3 lines represent the impact of changes in government rewards for consumers participating in responsible innovation on the probability of consumers participating in responsible innovation (the number of consumers participating in responsible innovation) when other parameters remain unchanged. The closer the plot line is to 1, the more likely consumers are to implement responsible innovation (the number of people participating in responsible innovation). In 4-2-5, the greater the government's reward for consumers to participate in responsible innovation, the closer the mapping line is to 1, so it shows that the greater the government's reward for consumers to participate in responsible innovation, the higher the probability of consumers participating in responsible innovation (the more consumers participating in responsible innovation). The same goes for the other plot lines in 4-2.

5. Revision of the Conclusion: Theoretical contributions and contributions to the prospect theory have been added to the conclusions. We listed specific government incentives for enterprises that implement responsible innovation and specific penalties for not implementing responsible innovation.
6. Revision of the reference：We adjusted the format of references.

Reviewer 2 Report

Research on responsible innovation mechanism corresponds with the scope of special issue of journal Sustainability. The authors offer tripartite evolutionary game model of enterprises, consumers and government for studying responsible innovation mechanism. The authors introduce prospect theory to explore the strategic choices and influencing factors of enterprises, consumers and government. Introducing of prospect theory in research on responsible innovation provides novelty of article. The main body of the text contains Introduction, Literature Review, Model description and Hypothesis, Model Establishment and Solution, Numerical Simulation Analysis, Research Conclusions and Prospects. The research results demonstrate theoretical novelty. Model description is detailed and logical. Conclusions appear from the model explanation in a detailed manner. The authors define limitations for research – introduce three typical participants of the model (consumer, government, enterprises) and do not consider the inflow and outflow of innovation in the system. Precisely indicated limitations allow correctly understanding results. The authors demonstrate deep interest in development of the theme by setting directions for the future research.

In the reviewer’s mind, it would be possible to improve research in several aspects:

1) In Introduction: The authors do not define aim and tasks for the study what harden understanding whether research results are complete. The limitations of research mentioned at the end of the article may be indicated already in Introduction. The novelty of article has to be highlighted. The authors mention covid-19 pandemic as stimulus for development of responsible innovation but do not introduce it in the analysis – this issue has to be explained or corrected.

2) It is recommended to precise generalized sentences and to add references. For example, in Introduction – Lines 29-30 – The authors write “… experts and scholars have gradually found some negative effects of innovation”; Lines 39-43 – The authors write “… some European scholars began to study and discuss the method of implementing responsible innovation ...” These sentences has to be referenced for clearer presentation of state of research. In Literature Review: Lines 65-66 – the authors write “Some scholars have also involved the theory of responsible innovation in their studies of some specific cases.” The sentence is generalized and not referenced. Lines 75-77 – the authors write “At present, few scholars have introduced prospect theory into the discussion of responsible innovation.” The sentence is generalized and not referenced. Line 308 the authors write: “According to the conclusion of Friedman's research….” The sentence has to be referenced. This has to be corrected.

3) It is recommended to indicate the authors’ contribution when introducing prospect theory into their analysis for clear presenting of novelty of article. For example – Lines 75-77 – the authors write: “At present, few scholars have introduced prospect theory into the discussion of responsible innovation.”

4) It is recommended to provide visualization of model architecture for presenting decision evolution tree.

5) It is recommended to expand Literature Review by introducing discussion on possible benefits and losses for model stakeholders during participating in responsible innovation by using previous research results.

Author Response

1. Revision of the introduction: The definition and connotation of responsible innovation are explained, the difference between responsible innovation and traditional technological innovation is explained, the research purpose and novelty of this paper is clarified, and the rationality of the implementation of responsible innovation stimulated by COVID-19 is explained.

2. Revision of the literature review: We reorganized the literature, rewrote the literature review, added references. We indicated the authors’ contribution when introducing prospect theory into their analysis for clear presenting of novelty of article.

3. Revision of the Prospect theory: In article 3.2.4, the implementation process of responsible innovation and the decision-making change process of decision-making subjects are discussed in combination with the two theories of prospect theory and evolutionary game theory, and the theoretical contribution to prospect theory is proposed at the conclusion.

4. Revision of the Decision-making process：Regarding the presentation of the decision-making process, in the article 3.1 has shown through tables all the strategic combinations of the tripartite decision and their benefits.

5.Revision of the literature review：This paper reorganizes the literature research results of predecessors, explains the specific meaning of stakeholders, points out the rationality of the research objects as government, enterprises and consumers, and represents the strategic selection and game process of the three subjects of the market with government, enterprises and consumers.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The abstract is no not coherent. Please consider reducing it and organize it better. “This paper discusses the interaction page 1 line 24” should be in the introduction part and not where it is now. Reduce the length. 

The referencing is also not done properly, for instance see line 175, page 4, page 2, line 80.

The authors have not addressed my previous comment of at least comparing their results to other related studies. The entire results have not been compared to existing studies. This is scientific research so the comparison cannot be ignored. Please address this. 

Author Response

1. Revision of Abstract: The abstract has been reorganized and the length of the abstract has been reduced.

2. Revision of the reference: The order of citations has been corrected and is now in the correct order of citations, and clicking to jump to references.

3. Revision of the result: We add 4.3 to compare with the research of existing scholars. This paper is dedicated to studying the implementation process of responsible innovation, exploring the influencing factors affecting the participation of enterprises, governments and consumers in responsible innovation, and putting forward some policy suggestions for enterprises in various countries to implement responsible innovation in the future. The contributions of this paper are as follows: Firstly, constructing a tripartite evolutionary game model of responsible innovation. Previous studies mainly made in-depth analysis on the concept connotation and theoretical framework of responsible innovation, but rarely explored the mechanism design and future evolution process of multi-stakeholder collaborative decision-making. Responsible innovation is a collaborative decision-making involving multiple stakeholders. In this paper, the interaction mechanism of key stakeholders is discussed from the perspective of dynamic process, the behavioral characteristics of key stakeholders in responsible in-novation are described, and the governance mode in which multiple stakeholders form the resultant force to implement responsible innovation is revealed, so as to provide reference for the decision-making behaviors of multiple stakeholders. Secondly, quantitative analysis of stable strategies of government, enterprise and consumer in re-sponsible innovation. Existing studies on the role of government in responsible innovation are mostly qualitative descriptions of science and technology policy orientation, lacking the support of quantitative policy theory. Based on prospect theory and evolutionary game method, this paper quantitatively analyzes how the government guides the stakeholders to assume their responsibilities with a positive attitude through policies. This paper analyzes how enterprises balance the pursuit of economic benefits and bear the social responsibility of innovation. In order to explore the evolution path and stable strategy of multi-agent interaction in responsible innovation, this paper analyzes the relationship between consumers' vital interests and the costs of participating in innovation policy formulation and bearing innovation risks.