Abstract:

Innovation is the catalyst of economic development. In traditional industrial field, closed innovation is the main model of technological innovation. With the rapid development of modern telecommunication technology, the complexity of innovative activities has been increasing along with the emergence of many new types of innovation models, such as distributed innovation, cooperative innovation, open innovation, etc. Knowledge-coupled innovation model is a type of open innovation models, which is based on knowledge innovation and has successfully utilized the coupling of knowledge flow to solve the problems of information symmetry and incentive compatibility in collaborative innovation. Previous researches on the open innovation model mainly focused on the company alliance, and seldom discussed the interaction, nature, process and cases of coupled open innovation. This study, from a perspective different from technological innovation, theoretically focuses on the formation processes, basic principles and advantages of knowledge-coupled collaborative innovation model, and tries to further deconstructs the following three sub-problems: (1) determine the characteristics of each innovation model and their relations; (2) explore the core innovation elements and principles of coupled open innovation; (3) analyze the problems solved by knowledge-coupled open innovation.
This paper, taking the defense science and technology innovation practice of National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA) as an example, analyzes the main ways to stimulate knowledge coupling, the open platform to support knowledge coupling and the basic steps to realize knowledge coupling. Through a systematical case study of Open NASA, this study found that by utilizing open source, challenge and crowdsourcing and through four stages (including defining collaborative tasks and rules; finding and incorporating external partners into collaborative systems; cooperating and innovating; co-creating and transforming collaborative results) to promote collaboration, the Open NASA platform can significantly expand the main body of innovation, stimulate innovation vitality and create a new research ecology. This mode has significant reference value for China′s national defense science and technology innovation. 
Through the analysis of the formation processes, basic principles and advantages of the knowledge-coupled collaborative innovation model, this study finds that:(1) The initial closed innovation is the self-circulation technological innovation confined within the main body of innovation. Closed innovation has obvious organizational boundary, and the boundary is closed and impenetrable. As the boundaries of innovation organizations become permeable, the innovation model gradually develops from closed innovation to cooperative innovation. In cooperative innovation, the cooperative parties mainly take the form of joint innovation, while technological innovation still limits the cooperative parties to the outside world, which is still relatively closed. In order to overcome the limitation of cooperative innovation, Chesbrough proposed the concept of "open innovation". In this concept, "innovation" refers to the development and commercialization of new products, new processes, new services, or improved versions of them, and "open" refers to the flow of knowledge into or out of an organization. The essence of open innovation is "not of me, but for me". Knowledge-coupled innovation is a type of open innovation, which takes knowledge as the core innovation resource. "Knowledge-coupled" refers to knowledge flow can both enter the organization boundary from outside and exit from inside in the process of innovation. (3) The core of all innovation is knowledge innovation, which is the essential attribute of innovation. This is the basic principle of constructing knowledge-coupled open innovation model. (4) Compared with other open innovation models, knowledge-coupled innovation solves the problem of information symmetry and incentive compatibility from different perspectives.
Based on the above theoretical research conclusions, this paper analyzes Open NASA, an open platform of NASA, as a practical case of knowledge-coupled open innovation model. The case of Open NASA indicates that:(1) Challenges, crowdsourcing, and open source are the main methods that adopted by Open NASA to stimulate knowledge coupling. These methods revolutionize innovation by engaging with non-traditional sources of innovative ideas. (2) Through the interaction on the platform, data, code and API flow out of NASA in the form of "knowledge raw materials", and innovative ideas, processes, products and even solutions flow into NASA in the form of "knowledge innovation results". This is the embodiment of Open NASA′s supporting knowledge coupling. (3) Open NASA realizes knowledge coupling through four basic steps. The first step is defining the collaborative tasks and rules, which is realized by constructing tasks, establishing cooperation rules and allocating resources. This step allows knowledge and innovation needs of NASA to "flow out" of organizational boundaries in the form of resources and "missions", and to solve information symmetry problems and achieve effective management within the constraints of cooperation rules. The second step is finding and incorporating external partners into collaborative systems. The specific performance of the steps is to find and screen the participants, to stimulate and attract the public. This step aims to attract a lot of external "smart brains" and stimulate more high-quality external knowledge to "flow" into the organizational boundaries. The third step is cooperating and innovating. This is the core step of knowledge-coupled open innovation. It is mainly about the management and control of the interactive collaborative innovation process. The forth step is co-creating and transforming collaborative results. The transformation and utilization of the achievements are not only driving inward, but also radiating outward. The essence of the achievements is the result of knowledge innovation. The transformation and utilization is an important link of knowledge coupling.
The operation, development and maturing of the knowledge-coupled open innovation mode represented by Open NASA provide three inspirations for the exploration and evolution of the collaborative innovation mode of national defense science and technology in China:knowledge-coupled open innovation can (1) widely attract the wisdom of the masses, and significantly expand the strength of support; (2) innovate incentive mechanism, and greatly stimulate the vitality of innovation; (3) innovate the organizational model, and create a new scientific research ecology. However, when China′s national defense science and technology development and innovation imitates and applies Open NASA′s knowledge-coupled innovation model, it is necessary to study and introduce the basic elements such as intellectual property that meet China′s national conditions, so as to form a good innovation ecology.

Key words: Open NASA, knowledge, coupled, open innovation