What is the relationship between sociotechnical transition and disruptive innovations?

Abstract

Sociotechnical transitions are milestones for the impacts of innovations on civilization. What is the relationship between sociotechnical transition and disruptive innovations? A relationship between sociotechnical transitions and disruptive innovation is suggested by the similarity of figures depicting product replacements during sociotechnical transitions as compared to figures illustrating disruptive innovations. Yet Christensen's disruptive innovation framework has been criticized as inadequate for studying sociotechnical transitions. If we cannot use the disruptive innovation framework to investigate sociotechnical transition, there is cause for concern.Viewing disruptive technology events allows for a more granular examination of sociotechnical transition. Here the authors investigate the relationship between the sociotechnical transition framework and the disruptive innovation framework. We show that not every disruptive innovation results in a sociotechnical transition, however every major Schumpeterian sociotechnical transition wave, and every Kondratieff K-wave has resulted from a series of disruptive innovations. We further add to the literature by revealing that sociotechnical transitions are not monolithic nor irreversible. These Schumpeterian sociotechnical transitions occur through disruptive innovations of entire categories of products or services. These findings also support that regime change is likely possible only through the disruption of an entire product or service category.