An ethical approach to marketing and valorisation

It is widely recognised that innovation is required for economic growth on a number of levels, such as in Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs), large organisations, regions and nations. Innovation is an important driver for organisational survival, sustainability, improvement, long-term productivity and economic growth. However, innovation in isolation is not only wasteful but also not useful. All projects, and in particular innovation projects, need to disseminate and exploit their results for maximising achievements and increasing sustainability after their completion. This includes launching of the innovation to market, transfer of results and best practices to different and broader contexts; potential tailoring to the needs of others; continuation after the funding period has finished; influences on policy and practice; as well as serving the public good. The emphasis should be on optimising the value of the project and on boosting its impact. In this paper we customise a theoretical framework developed by the US Content Subcommittee of the Impact CS Steering Committee that specifies traditional moral and ethical concepts, which can be used to identify the moral issues concerning Valorisation. An application of these conventional and generic ethical concepts is made to the ideas of Dissemination, Exploitation, Mainstreaming and Sustainability. In Valorisation, players such as Incorporators, Producers/ Project Partnerships, Mediators and Mainstreamers must be aware of these ethical duties, which have been identified by the application of the moral and ethical concepts, as presented in this paper, in order to become more responsible professionals in general. We propose a set of heuristics for ethical engagement with the Valorisation process proposing that an effective Valorisation strategy must be underpinned with ethical consideration.