Logical Incrementalism as a Path to Strategic Agility: The Case of NASA

Abstract

This article explores the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) journey to strategic agility through successively shifting to three different strategic alignments over the last six decades and suggests that logical incrementalism may be an unappreciated driver of this process. Three successive alignment models exhibit important shifts in technology strategy, competencies, and values of the organization. The three phases of incremental changes in shifting from one alignment model to the next are the emergence of new approaches, the embeddedness of these approaches in particular contexts, and their expansion to other organizational contexts.