The legitimation strategies of early stage disruptive innovation

Abstract

A nascent research stream on early stage disruptive innovation identified the external environment as a central mechanism that predict their success or failure. However, despite its prominence, this research stream suffers from two major weaknesses. First, it rests on an under-socialized view of the external environment which ignores the cultural and cognitive dimensions at play. Second, it underestimates the active role of proponents of disruptive innovation in shaping these cultural and cognitive dimensions. We take an institutional perspective to analyze the legitimation strategies employed by proponents of early stage disruptive innovation. Building on the insights derived from an exploratory case study of the introduction of the cardboard coffin in France, we identify two legitimation strategies deployed by proponents of disruptive innovation. The first strategy consists in legitimating performance criteria through demystifying prices and theorizing new performance criteria. The second strategy attracts and addresses the demand for the new product by empowering customers and targeting peripheral players. While the literature points to the difficulty incumbents have spotting and reacting to early stage disruptive innovation, we found that incumbents resisted the innovation through