Code or Norm Innovation on the Innovation spectrum

Part 3: Code or Norm Innovation on the Innovation spectrum

Following on from looking at Technology Innovation and Process Innovation, this blog focuses on the third of the four staging posts that we identified in describing a spectrum of innovation in Blog 1.

Code or Norm Innovation

The proposition that Code or Norm Innovation occurs as the staging point beyond Process Innovation comes from taking a closer look at institutional theory and socio-technical transitions literature. It was there that we identified the importance of innovation in “the rules of the game", encompassing the introduction or modification of rules, standards, or guidelines for specific systems or communities.

Code or Norm Innovation allows us to recognise the roles of legal institutions, regulatory bodies, and cultural influencers in shaping and disseminating new standards. Such standards can be innovations in their own right and can also drive further innovations as organisations respond to new “rules of the game”. This part of the innovation spectrum allows us to recognise, and connect to, the factors that affect innovation adoption and diffusion, including factors such as institutional support, business models, social acceptance, and potential resistance or conflict.

Examples

Quality Management:

‘Drink aware’ trade standards are voluntary standards, but they change the information collected and shared with consumers as well as how beverages are marketed.

Corporate Governance:

Codes and industry standards in cybersecurity feed into changes in procedures (Process Innovation) and reflect a changing context for individual and organisational activities.

Environmental Initiatives:

Carbon offsetting, Climate-related Financial Disclosures, and carbon or eco-labelling are all examples of Code or Norm Innovation which drive a series of changes, and innovations, in the fields of measurement and reporting, investment, corporate management and regulation.

Code and Norm Innovation covers a series of interactions between emerging norms, societal dynamics, and governance structures. Code or Norm Innovation can shape social behavior, augmenting rules, and setting guidelines. In simpler terms, Code or Norm Innovation shows how the way we make rules and standards can really change how we live and interact with each other, and the environment.