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Strategic Study of CAE >> 2018, Volume 20, Issue 6 doi: 10.15302/J-SSCAE-2018.06.020

Enlightenment of Disruptive Technological Innovation of DARPA

1. Chinese Academy of Engineering Innovation Strategy, Beijing 100088, China;

2. China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang 621900, Sichuan, China

Funding project:中国工程院咨询项目“工程科技颠覆性技术战略研究”(2017-ZD-10) Received: 2018-11-01 Revised: 2018-11-16 Available online: 2018-12-31

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Abstract

As the leader of disruptive innovation, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DAPRA) is followed by more and more countries, governments, as well as large enterprises. They followed the DAPRA's model to set up innovation management. However, almost no achievement comparable with the DAPRA was realized, and no consensus was reached on how to rebuild another noble DARPA. Viewing the experience of many copies of the DARPA, the explicit structure and operation mechanism are the bases of DARPA's success, but not the core. This paper, from the perspective of evolutionary theory, analyses the history of the DARPA, and discusses its success factors in terms of growth environment, competitive situation, interest structure, value pursuit and so on. We conclude that DARPA's success comes from long-term struggle with its development environment, and a strong belief, low selfish departmentalism, a pattern without restrictions from ideas and interests, and a perspective strategic vision are the very important support. From the model of the DARPA, we believe that building a special zone out of the system for innovation management is the key to speed up the disruptive technological innovation.

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