RSC7: Mission-oriented innovation policies: Challenges and opportunites.

Research to social cycle

Exploring the paper Mazzucato, M., 2018. Mission-oriented innovation policies: challenges and opportunities. Industrial and corporate change, 27(5), pp.803-815.

Blog one of five, in a series by Dr Chrissi McCarthy.

Welcome to the seventh instalment of our research-to-social cycle (RSC) blogs, where we examine a research paper that has had a big impact on our thinking and explore it through a day-to-day lens.

The week ahead

A lot has been said about he business case for diversity, with many claiming it has a solid foundation. However, as we have seen from he previous blogs, things are a little bit more complicated. In lab-based studies and small, powerful groups like boards, diversity does outperform across all measure criteria. However, when you consider diversity through an organisational lens, a more complex picture arises.

This doesn’t mean diversity doesn’t have the potential to bring great things to the workplace, because it really does. Instead, diversity is not a silver bullet; it needs a strong environment to flourish.

Which then leads us to the question of what that environment should be and how we encourage it. There has been much debate about the business or social case position over the years, but they both have gaps that can’t be ignored.

In this blog series, in the context of EDI we will consider the paper Mazzucato, M., 2018. Mission-oriented innovation policies: challenges and opportunities. Industrial and corporate change, 27(5), pp.803-815. Which can offer a way of viewing work in equality that I believe is particularly helpful.

The paper: Mission-oriented innovation policies: challenges and opportunities. Industrial and corporate change.

Year: 2018

Authors: Mazzucato, M., 2018.

Blog 1: Introducing R2SC 6

Blog 2: The business case

Blog 3: The social case

Blog 4: Mission-oriented innovation: what Muzzucato said

Blog 5: What this means for practice

What are the Research-to-Social Cycles?

Not everyone has the time or luxury to get up close with academic research in EDI, and even if they do, they might not have stumbled upon these particular papers.

So we want to bring you closer to the research we find important by introducing you to a new research paper on the third Monday of each month, along with up to five blogs across that week.

We will discuss the research, its real-world impact, and how you can implement its findings. Perhaps importantly, these blogs will be written by humans rather than generative AI, so we can really understand the human element of the research and why it matters to us. (Note: I will never not be using Grammarly).

The idea behind the Research-to-Social Cycle blog series is to help bridge the research-practice gap in EDI. Currently, valuable research insights are being missed, which hinders our ability to improve our practice and our environments.

We hope you enjoy the series. Please let us know if we have successfully brought you closer to EDI research, so you can implement what is helpful in your practice.

Here is our schedule for 2025:

Published: RSC1 Jun – Blogs start here

McCarthy, C., Barnard, S., Thomson, D. and Dainty, A., 2021. Understanding gender equality policy and practice gaps through the lens of organisational justice: Development of an employee alignment model. Frontiers in Sociology, 6, p.681086.

Published: RSC2 Jul Blogs start here

Van den Brink, M. and Benschop, Y., 2012. Slaying the seven‐headed dragon: The quest for gender change in academia. Gender, Work & Organization, 19(1), pp.71-92.

Published: RSC3 Aug Blogs start here

Leslie, L.M., 2019. Diversity initiative effectiveness: A typological theory of unintended consequences. Academy of Management Review, 44(3), pp.538-563.

Published: RSC4 Sept Blogs start here

Kleinman, S. and Copp, M., 2009. Denying social harm: Students’ resistance to lessons about inequality. Teaching Sociology, 37(3), pp.283-293.

Published: RSC5 Oct

Kaiser, C.R., Major, B., Jurcevic, I., Dover, T.L., Brady, L.M. and Shapiro, J.R., 2013. Presumed fair: ironic effects of organizational diversity structures. Journal of personality and social psychology, 104(3), p.504.

Published: RSC6 Nov

Mor Barak, M.E., Lizano, E.L., Kim, A., Duan, L., Rhee, M.K., Hsiao, H.Y. and Brimhall, K.C., 2016. The promise of diversity management for climate of inclusion: A state-of-the-art review and meta-analysis. Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, 40(4), pp.305-333.

This month’s blog RSC7

Mazzucato, M., 2018. Mission-oriented innovation policies: challenges and opportunities. Industrial and corporate change, 27(5), pp.803-815.

We will be taking a few months’ break from the research on social cycles in early 2026 as we launch FIELDS into the wider world.

If you have a paper you would like to recommend at that time, please do let us know.