A Responsible and Inclusive Technology Framework for Attending to Business-to-Business Contexts

Abstract

Technology development practices in industry are often primarily focused on business results, which risks creating unbalanced power relations between corporate interests and the needs or concerns of people who are affected by technology implementation and use. These practices, and their associated cultural norms, may result in uses of technology that have direct, indirect, short-term, and even long-term negative effects on groups of people and/or the environment. This is especially critical in B2B (business-to-business) settings due to the potential for responsibility gaps to emerge in such contexts where technologies are sold to one or more third-party company obfuscating downstream impacts. This article contributes a formative framework—the Responsible and Inclusive Technology Framework—that orients critical reflection around the social contexts of technology creation and use; the power dynamics between self, business, and societal stakeholders; the impacts of technology on various communities across past, present, and future dimensions; and the practical decisions that imbue technological artifacts with cultural values. The framework and its components were iteratively developed based on observations of 10 internal exploratory workshops conducted with a total of 49 participants across the company. We expect that the use of the Responsible and Inclusive Technology framework, especially in B2B industry settings, will serve as a catalyst for more intentional and socially grounded practices, thus bridging the responsibility and principles-to-practice gap.

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