| The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the application of open innovation theory concepts and practices employed in private industry to the federal public sector, specifically the Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Acquisition Management System (DAMS). This study considered using open innovation to improve the DoD's ability to move innovative products and services through the DAMS faster, at a lower cost, while continuing to meet performance requirements for the DoD's end-users. The theoretical lens was focused around the core concept of open innovation: collaboration with external parties, principally customers, and the acquisition, integration, and application of knowledge from external parties to improve innovation performance. The study also considered improved performance from the perspective of what the DoD, as the primary customer in the ecosystem, could do to raise the capacity of its supporting industrial base. Furthermore, the study considered the importance, use, and alignment of several secondary enablers that are needed to improve the probability of successfully implementing open innovation, including leadership and governance, culture, intellectual property and legal issues, funding, and technology. The study examined four propositions identified in the literature review and used realist synthesis in combination with the context, intervention, mechanism, and outcomes model to determine their validity. In the synthesis, the study identified four major findings that served to validate each of the propositions, essentially supporting the overall proposition that, as the primary customer in the ecosystem, the DoD's effective use of collaboration with industry throughout the process and its provision of the right type of information earlier in the process resulted in better innovation performance for everyone in the ecosystem. |
