Subject and motivation: While organizational culture serves as cohesive force within companies, it can also act as potential impediment to change and innovation. In the realm of the space sector, space agencies have traditionally provided space companies with comprehensive specifications and mission objectives for space projects. Moreover, they have assumed full financial responsibility and managed the high-risk nature of space activities and practices. As a consequence, the business models of legacy space companies have been influenced by this centralized and command-and-control approach; cost structures and contract forms are designed to place the burden of all costs, including extra ones, on the space agency, contributing to a risk-aversion culture within such companies.

With the advent of New Space, new entrants are disrupting traditional space approaches and practices. Coping with the need to ensure the viability of their business plans and ideas to investors, these actors introduce knowledge and competencies that demand decentralized decision-making authority and, ultimately, ownership of the assets they develop.

To secure the sustainability of challenging space programs, space agencies are forced to adopt innovative approaches that find a balance between the inherited know-how of established space industry leaders and the agility, new capabilities, and cost-effective practices offered by emerging space players.

Objective and methodology of the thesis: The primary objective of this thesis is to explore the impact of the inherited organizational culture within traditional space entities, such as space agencies and leading space companies, on the rate of introduction and implementation of innovative space methodologies. This research will examine the challenges associated with modifying established organizational culture, consider the necessity of actually reshaping these cultures, and assess how collaborative efforts and partnerships with emerging space actors influence the dynamics within incumbent organizations. Under this study, students will utilize complex project business literature, with a specific focus on systemic innovation in industrial and organizational dynamics. This thesis is going to include collaboration with senior experts from the European Space Agency (ESA). Students will adopt Dynamic Capabilities Theory (Teece, 1997) to sensemaking their analysis.