Innovation in the 21st Century: Architectural Change, Purpose, and the Challenges of Our Time

Understanding the process of innovation has been a central concern of management researchers, but despite this progress, there remains much that we do not understand. Deepening our knowledge is critically important given the enormous environmental and social challenges we face as a society. Pursing incremental innovation will continue to be hugely important, but this paper argues that building a richer understanding of architectural or systemic innovation will also be crucial. This paper suggests that the study of organizational purpose may provide a particularly fruitful avenue for future research. This paper was accepted by David Simchi-Levi, Special Section of Management Science: 65th Anniversary.