Opportunities for innovation in a system of systems framework

This paper examines various theories of innovation and sees how they apply to a system of systems framework. Systems of systems present an unusual challenge for innovation theory because some of the basic rules of the theory are broken by the system of systems paradigm. In particular, systems of systems are often deployed to solve complex problems that have a pressing need. However, pressing problems that require top system performance typically require an integrated solution - a solution where one entity controls all the components. By definition, a system of systems administrator does not control all the components and, indeed, may have control of none of them. This paper reviews various theories of innovation and applies them to an example that has previously been proposed for a system of systems.