Cognitive Architecture: Orchestrator of Innovation in Organizations

Abstract

Management of Organizational Knowledge which drives innovation has always been considered as the key to performance and resultant sustained competitive advantage. This axiom is even more applicable in the 21st century where the business environment has been labeled as hypercompetitive.

Research on innovation has shown that it is a non linear, disjunctive, iterative and cyclical process. Yet the architecture and process steps are not clear. The question remains as to how organizations determine which system to follow? Why some firms are able to successfully explore and exploit ideas and some falter even though they are exposed to the same business environment. Why do spillovers occur? The core question remains is what orchestrates the process of innovation and therefore what determines innovativeness in organizations?

This paper attempts to find an answer to this enigma. It looks at how two health care systems attempted to achieve targeted health indices and associated demographic transition. Using a comparative case design, this processual study establishes that a functional "cognitive architecture" orchestrates the process of innovation at the organizational level. It is this structural element which focuses organizational attention on idea identification in line with organizational objectives, drives the organizational processes which test, adapt and successfully diffuse these innovations. Thus this paper contributes by resolving the role of structural elements that drive the process of innovation.

Keywords: Organizational attention; Cognitive architecture; Open innovation; structural components