A multilevel view of internal technological innovation

This article views organizational innovation as a fundamentally multilevel phenomenon. Project teams conceive of new offerings and work to obtain their final approval. This process unfolds within a structural context shaped by executives in response to environmental dictates. Using Bower’s definition–impetus–context model as a guiding framework, I argue that structures and processes with both functional and dysfunctional consequences arise at various levels. Innovation teams develop well-defined cultures that, if not properly channeled, can produce negative effects on the innovation effort. Similarly, corporate leaders evolve a structural context to facilitate innovation, but risk introducing dislocations into existing patterns of interaction in doing so. Given these challenges, the mediating role of the corporate division takes on importance for organizations seeking to profit from innovative undertakings. Established firms that mobilize their corporate divisions to balance the competing needs of innovating teams and the broader company seem well poised to excel at internal technological innovation.