The use of science and engineering skills to address the novel challenges of modern society through innovative solutions is regarded as an essential strategy around the world. Many of the studies on innovators, however, are not specific to engineers. To address this gap, this study explored engineers’ views of innovation and the attributes of engineers who create, develop, and implement innovations through in-depth interviews with expert engineering innovators. The study was set in an interpretivist framework and developed a socially constructed description of engineering innovativeness. Forty-five US-based expert engineering innovators were interviewed; these interviews were coded using a grounded-theory approach until categorical saturation was achieved. The results include the identification of 20 characteristics of engineering innovativeness, as well as an ‘engineer’s definition’ of an innovation and several general descriptors of ‘non-innovative’ engineers. The significance of this study comes from its use of detailed qualitative data gathered from peer-recognized innovative engineers from industry, entrepreneurial ventures, and academia to identify and define characteristics of engineering innovativeness in particular. The identification of these characteristics has implications for the training and development of engineers, for engineering team formation and management, and for programs, policies, and interventions aimed at supporting innovative behavior by engineers.

利用科学和工程技术通过创新的解决方案应对现代社会的新挑战被视为世界范围内的一项基本战略。但是，许多有关创新者的研究并非专门针对工程师。为了解决这一差距，本研究通过与专家工程创新者进行深入访谈，探索了工程师对创新的看法以及创建，开发和实施创新的工程师的属性。这项研究是在解释主义者的框架内进行的，并且对工程创新进行了社会建构的描述。采访了来自美国的四十五名工程专家。这些访谈采用扎根理论的方法进行编码，直到达到绝对饱和为止。结果包括确定20个工程创新特征，以及创新的“工程师定义”和“非创新”工程师的几个通用描述。这项研究的意义在于，它使用了从行业，企业家，学术界等同行公认的创新工程师那里收集的详细定性数据，以特别是识别和定义工程创新的特征。这些特征的确定对工程师的培训和发展，工程团队的形成和管理以及旨在支持工程师的创新行为的计划，政策和干预措施都具有重要意义。这项研究的意义在于，它使用了从行业，企业家，学术界等同行公认的创新工程师那里收集的详细定性数据，以特别是识别和定义工程创新的特征。这些特征的确定对工程师的培训和发展，工程团队的形成和管理以及旨在支持工程师的创新行为的计划，政策和干预措施都具有重要意义。这项研究的意义在于，它使用了从行业，企业家，学术界等同行公认的创新工程师那里收集的详细定性数据，以特别是识别和定义工程创新的特征。这些特征的确定对工程师的培训和发展，工程团队的形成和管理以及旨在支持工程师的创新行为的计划，政策和干预措施都具有重要意义。