Responsible Innovation: The Impact of Major Industrial Disasters and Gender in a Global South Context

Responsible innovation (RI) dynamics remain underexplored in Global South contexts, which have a high prevalence of micro- and small enterprises and are vulnerable to the devastating effects of industrial disasters. Only a few studies examine RI within such settings, where it is arguably needed most. Drawing on imprinting theory, we examine whether major industrial disasters reshape founders’ propensity to adoptfirm-level RI practices and whether this effect depends on founders’ gender. Using data from 388 founders of micro- and small enterprises in Bangladesh, we compare firms founded before versus after the 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse. Generalized linear model (GLM) analyses show that firms founded post-disaster report higher levels of RI practices adoption, but this imprint is heterogeneous. In pre-disasterconditions, female-founded firms report lower RI adoption than male-founded firms; while in post-disaster conditions, female-founded firms increase RI adoption substantially, closing much of the pre-disaster gender gap, whereas male-founded firms show little change. Post-hoc analyses suggest this shift is driven by increased inclusivity and reflexivity dimensions of RI. In sum, we extend RI research to the mostprevalent organizational form in the Global South and advance imprinting and event-oriented theorizing on how founder traits shape innovation responses to exogenous shocks.