Innovation plays an ambivalent yet important role in modern society. A general conception of innovation, based on research in innovation studies from economics and sociology, specifies this role not just as a matter of entrepreneurs in pursuit of private gain in markets, but rather in terms of a network of actors who carry out a new idea. Via a critical discussion of Rawls’ theory of justice as fairness that addresses its shortcomings with a view to the non-economic dimension of innovation, this paper identifies the double role innovation plays for justice: to contribute to the long-term stability of society and to find ideas that specifically improve the benefits for the least advantaged in the present. Within this framework, a principle of contribution taking into account both the input of entrepreneurs and of investors should orient the process, not least so as to reduce the inegalitarian tendencies of the innovation process and to create funds for justice investments.
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Rafael Ziegler (2015) studied this question.