Promethean Fire, or Pandora's Box? The Dynamics of Innovation-driven Sustainability Risks

Schumpeter perceived innovation as the ultimate engine of economic development ( Schumpeter, 1934 ). Yet the adverse effects of many innovations are increasingly alarming and destructive. This paper proposes a generalised model of innovation-driven sustainability risks that characterises the entrepreneurial-environmental-social nexus (EVS) within a classic Lotka-Volterra framework. Compared to the World3 model proposed by Meadows et al. (1972) in their landmark study “The Limits to Growth” , our model has numerous advantages: i) better analytical tractability, ii) more representative characterisation of economic development arising from innovation, and iii) a high degree of flexibility at the N -dimensional model in connecting a large number of EVS factors for the better understanding of innovation-induced sustainability risks in a systematic manner. A disequilibrium theory of innovation-induced instability is proposed, which sheds light on the relationship between innovation and sustainability risks. We further discuss two types of policy measures in tackling the innovation-driven sustainability risks inspired by ecological studies: i) the estimation and enforcement of maximum sustainable adoption rate , ii) the continuing implementation of counterbalancing R&D innovation policy .