Radical Innovations EcosystemA Grounded Theory Analysis for Defense Industries

In recent years, the concept of innovation ecosystems has become commonplace for understanding the process of creating shared value. On the other hand, due to the importance of radical innovations in creating a unique defense capability and evolving of these innovations in a network of different actors, the need for an ecosystem view is felt more. In this research, with a qualitative approach and in the form of a multi grounded theory strategy, using latent content analysis tactics and semi structured interviews, a framework for radical innovators in the Iranian defense sector has been introduced. The interviewees were selected from senior managers in the field of defense innovation by snowball sampling method and the researcher saturated the data after 28 interviews. Findings showed that the components of radical innovations ecosystem include actors, capital, infrastructure, regulations, knowledge, ideas, commonalities and communication channels, culture, and structural principles.