The Unintended and Undesirable Consequences: Neglected by Innovation Research

The chapter is organized as follows: First, we develop a theoretical framework for studying unintended consequences of innovation. Then, we present the results of the fi rst literature review on what undesirable consequences of innovation have been found and position them tentatively in relation to Fagerberg and Verspagen’s (2009) mapping of ‘innovation studies.’ We then validate our fi rst search results by conducting a second article search,3 this time focused on the fi ve most infl uential journals in ‘innovation studies,’ and reporting the reading of the six most infl uential innovation handbooks. Finally, we discuss the fi ndings and draw some conclusions concerning research in the scientifi c fi eld of innovation.