The Role of DARPA in Seeding and Encouraging New Technology Trajectories: Pre- and Post- Tony Tether in the New Innovation Ecosystem

Abstract

This paper, a case study of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), sheds new insights into the role of the U.S. State in innovation. The study uses grounded theory building methods to unpack the processes by which DARPA fosters new technology trajectories within the institutional ecosystem supporting the computing industry. At the heart of the paper are 50 in-depth field interviews of DARPA program managers and related Microsystems technologists within start-ups, universities, government institutions, and the five established computing firms. Going further, the paper triangulates this qualitative interview data with participant observation, archival data, and bibliometric data to provide a holistic view of the forces driving technological change. The results find DARPA to be a uniquely adaptive organization. Yet, throughout such adaptations, DARPA program managers use the same five step process to influence technology. With its latest shift, DARPA may be effectively (1) narrowing the valley of death, (2) coordinating innovation within a vertically fragmented industry, and (3) influencing innovation to serve military needs despite primary demand being in commercial applications. This “new DARPA” may, however, leave the U.S. technology pipeline without new sources.