Innovation in a military research laboratory: an initial exploratory study

Abstract

Many organisations recognise the importance of innovation yet still struggle with what it means to be innovative. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to report the results of an exploratory study to examine perceptions regarding the practice of innovation in the US Air Force's science and technology (S&T) community. To relate our research to theory, we used the dynamic capabilities framework as a lens to interpret the results. Based on our research, the primary reasons the S&T community pursues innovation are a desire to be state-of-the-art, better use technology and respond to the customer. However, innovation was not well integrated into their business and technology strategies, which may result in ad hoc innovation efforts that are incongruent. Therefore, the S&T community may be better served by providing its workforce the organisational processes to better facilitate game-changing innovation.

Keywords:

• innovation
• innovation barriers
• innovative culture
• fostering innovation
• science and technology

Acknowledgements

The authors thank two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and recommendations, which helped improve the quality of the paper tremendously.