Companies and Value Sensitive Innovation

Innovation drives technological, economic, and societal progress. Individual companies need to innovate to stay competitive. At the same time, the societal impact of innovation means that companies need to understand, analyse, and resolve tensions between different criteria such as financial success and ethical acceptability in the innovation process. They need to innovate value sensitively.

This minor is about managing value sensitive innovation within established companies. You will learn about the most important elements of innovation processes within companies, such as strategy, finance, marketing, ethics, and risk- and safety management. You will also learn to describe, analyse, and understand innovation as having significance beyond the individual company: innovative products, processes, services, and technologies created by companies shape our world and how we live together. You will learn about the different criteria used to evaluate potential innovations, their relation, tensions, and significance for innovation‘s large societal role.

In short, this minor will thus teach you how innovation works, and the potential and challenges for using it as a means to tackle major societal challenges.

You will learn the essential aspects of the innovation process in established companies through the unique perspective of TU Delft’s Values, Technology, and Innovation (VTI) department. You will study and gain insight into how strategic, managerial, marketing, financial, ethical, and safety and risk considerations impact innovation and how they are intertwined.

After completing the minor, you will:

1. Understand and analyse the innovation process in established companies.
2. Understand and evaluate value sensitive criteria for evaluating innovations in the innovation process.
3. Analyse and evaluate relations and tensions between value sensitive criteria.
4. Evaluate the innovation process in respect to its societal implications, incl. considerations about safety, risk, and ethics.
5. Apply the innovation process and value sensitive criteria in a concrete case to develop requirement specifications.
6. Create value sensitive requirement specifications in a concrete case.

Registration for this thematic minor is on a first-come, first-served basis and available places. (No lottery draw).

Our vision is to enable you to responsibly apply your engineering skills in innovation processes in established companies based on a thorough understanding of innovation processes, notably the different criteria used to evaluate potential innovations, their relation, tensions, and significance for innovation‘s important societal role.

Innovation processes in established companies differ in important ways from innovation in start-ups. For example, the relevant financial and strategic considerations differ. Established companies have a significant impact on society through their innovation process. This minor focuses on innovation in established companies.

Student at Leiden University, TU Delft or Erasmus University Rotterdam?
Check the eligibility matrix to see if your bachelor’s degree programme offers access to this and other minors at https://www.tudelft.nl/minor

Student at another educational institution?
External students cannot register via EduXchange. Interested in this minor, read the whole registration procedure at https://www.tudelft.nl/minor

For information about the courses, visit the TU Delft study guide.
For additional information on this minor, visit the TU Delft minor page.

Lectures, conventional and flipped classroom, work groups, a business game, and applying theory to practice in a concrete case.

Check the detailed overview of courses, learning activities and study load at https://www.studyguide.tudelft.nl/