Operationalising a process model of innovation for the mining industry

Abstract

Technological innovations in mining help improve the efficiency, sustainability and productivity of the mining sector. However, most research on the development and implementation of technological innovations is at the level of the organisation and often not context-specific, providing limited insights into specific practices of individual employees and teams, underpinning the innovation process. This study operationalises a process model of innovation for the mining industry. Using data from twenty-five interviews with mining experts, our study identified and mapped actionable practices that mining organisations can adopt to effectively identify, develop and implement innovation. Three main contributions emerged from the study. The study offers an actionable process model of innovation for mining that considers the mining context at the level of individual and team behaviours. The study reveals the need to involve multiple types of stakeholders and that the mix of stakeholder types varies between innovation phases. Finally, the study finds that the innovation practices identified map to six innovation culture enablers, all of which are required but vary in importance across each phase of the innovation process.