MEASURING THE LEVEL OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION

摘要

Innovation is the foundation that helps to ensure a competitive edge, both economical and in the military. Several types of innovation are defined in order to provide a better understanding of what innovation really entails and what drives it. The main drivers are internal and external to an organisation where the level of collaboration with other organisations and institutions plays an important role. The internal drivers refer to the strategy of the organisation, the innovation climate and the leadership, the entrepreneurship and the resources of the organisation. The external drivers are more related to government's role. Innovation itself is not measureable and must therefore be linked to a pre-determined set of criteria. In using specific frameworks, one has to determine the level of innovation as well as which drivers are applied in order to make it possible to measure the feasibility of innovation efforts. The resources that need to be allocated in terms of funding and personnel with reference to the effort must also be determined. For this paper 27 projects, from a typical defence related industry, were used and evaluated to measure the level of innovation that is taking place per project and in the specific organisation. Three aspects were measured; namely ideas, processes and products. A second framework was drafted to measure the drivers or environment in which the innovation took place in terms of internal drivers, external drivers and the level of collaboration. The research results provided a sound basis for the identification and measurement of the elements and drivers of innovation. It was found that the two frameworks are practical instruments that can be used to validate the innovation capability of an organisation, providing a deep insight into the level of innovation and the environment of innovation in the defence research organisation.