The driving and restraining forces which affect technological innovation in organizations

Abstract

In today's competitive environment, successfully adopting and implementing technological innovations is a necessity for organizational survival. Organizations are under intense pressure to adopt technological innovations due to financial and technological factors. At the same time, organizations are influenced by organizational and individual factors which restrain their ability to implement technological innovations. This study uses a model of organizational change to examine the factors which drive and restrain technological innovations in organizations. Lewin's Force Field Analysis procedure is modified and used to study the technological innovation process. This approach links the research on technological innovations to research and theory in organizational development. A study of technological innovation in three companies is performed to test the usefulness of this approach. The results show that financial, technological, and organizational factors drive technological innovations in organizations. However, technological innovations are restrained by financial, organizational, and individual factors. p]The approach developed in this report can serve as a useful tool for innovation champions. It provides a method to evaluate a company's implementation strategy and to identify problems in the innovation process. The approach can examine a single innovation, or analyze an organization's capability to implement continuous technological change.