Houston, We Have a Problem: NASA and Open Innovation (A)

Michael L. Tushman, Hila Lifshitz-Assaf, Kerry Herman

Jeff Davis, director of Space Life Sciences Directorate at NASA, has been working for several years to raise awareness amongst scientists and researchers in his organizations of the benefits of open innovation as a successful and efficient way to collaborate on difficult research problems regarding health and space travel. Despite a number of initiatives, SLSD members have been skeptical about incorporating the approach into their day-to-day research and work, and have resisted Davis's and his strategy team's efforts. The (A) case outlines these efforts and the organization members' reactions. The (B) case details what Davis and the SLSD strategy team learned, and how they adapted their efforts to successfully incorporate open innovation as one of many tools used in collaborative research at NASA.

Learning Objective

Learning Objectives: Challenges of leading innovation and change; challenges of shifting an organization's culture and identity; leadership and change in technical settings; the impact of open innovation on incumbent organizations; leading innovation and change in engineering and scientific organizations.

Details

Pub Date: May 5, 2014(Revised: Nov 12, 2014)

Discipline: Organizational Behavior

Subjects: Organizational behavior

Source: Harvard Business School

Product #: 14044-PDF-ENG

Teaching note: Available

Length: 15 page(s)

Supplementary case (B) – Product #: 414057-PDF-ENG

Teaching note: Available

Houston, We Have a Solution: NASA and Open Innovation (B)

Michael L. Tushman, Hila Lifshitz-Assaf, Kerry Herman