Case Studies on Technology Adoption in Navy Energy and Environmental Technology Projects

Abstract

Bridging the gap over “the valley of death” is the purpose of technology transition programs and is not a new challenge for the Navy. However, these initiatives usually focus on technology development, not on the adoption side of the transition gap. The Navy created the Adoption Readiness Level framework to assist transition managers with this challenge. This thesis compares the ARL framework to other popular frameworks found in literature and uses them to analyze five cases of energy and environmental technologies in order to draw conclusions regarding common barriers to technology adoption on Navy installations. The research found that adoption was defined as the point when all associated technical specifications, codes, and standards were updated to reflect the new technology. It was generally assumed that decisions regarding technology adoption are made based on rational factors such as functional and economic advantage. However, cultural conflicts across various professional communities presented a significant challenge to achieving the level of acceptance needed to facilitate technology adoption. Factors that contributed to positive outcomes included understanding the culture of the professional communities that serve as critical change agents and targeting those groups through strategic communications. The ARL framework can be improved by more specifically addressing culture, the role of change agents, and the need for strategic communications at the earliest level.