Doctoral Dissertation Research: Socially Responsible Innovation Systems and Contesting Knowledge: NGOs fighting blindness in the U.S., Kenya, Nepal and India

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY

Investigators

Abstract

Why has high-tech innovation produced by independent social enterprises emerged in developing countries? And how are these innovations being transferred to other countries around the world? This dissertation research investigates these questions through a study of the World Health Organization Vision 2020 (WHOV) program. The goal of the WHOV is to eradicate avoidable blindness globally, by, among other activities, sponsoring NGOs in India and Nepal who create new surgical science and ophthalmic technology in order to treat blindness. These innovations are distributed globally, to eye hospitals in other developing countries and to ophthalmologists and global health professionals in wealthy countries such as the United States. To investigate how these innovations are developed and how they move to other parts of the world, a research methodology called the extended case method is used. It includes a multi-site ethnographic analysis and semi-structured interviews at eye hospitals in Kenya, Nepal and India. The theoretical significance of this research is that it contradicts the assumption that highly sophisticated science and technology is developed in the west and transferred to developing countries.It also develops new theoretical knowledge about the role of nonprofit organizations in generating markets, contributing to theories of the dynamics of social enterprise funding for high-quality modern science and technology. Theoretical and empirical findings about innovation and technology transfer are used to train engineering students in the NSF Triple Helix GK-12 program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. A participatory photography project incorporates the perspectives of patients in the innovation process.