Disruptive Innovation Theory Research Articles

Disruptive technological process innovation in a process-oriented industry: A case study

Abstract By utilizing a unique methodology to the field of strategy (i.e., the complete participant method), we demonstrated that firms are able to identify a technology that can potentially disrupt the industry, expanding on the ex-ante capacity of disruptive innovation theory. In addition, the study identifies six challenges that a new entrant faces when developing a potentially disruptive technical process innovation. The study also suggests to prevent failure in the process of developing and commercializing a potentially disruptive process innovation, new entrants in a process-oriented industry need to acquire three antecedents and capabilities which have been formulated in three propositions.

The evolution mechanism of latecomer firms value network in disruptive innovation context: a case study of Haier Group

ABSTRACT The theory of disruptive innovation provides theoretical support for latecomer firms to achieve catching-up, in which value network is regarded as one of the important forces to drive disruptive innovation. However, little is known about how a latecomer firm changes its value network in the process of disruptive innovation to fulfill catching-up. To address this issue, it draws on the disruptive innovation theory and evolution perspective to investigate the evolution mechanism of latecomer firms’ value network in a disruptive innovation context. By using an exploratory case of Haier, a four-stage model is proposed to present the evolution process of value network matching with that of latecomer firms catching-up. Specifically, the evolution of value network is characterised as the changes in the configurations of value network, including value proposition, value subject, value activity, value relationship and value space, which are oriented by disruptive innovation context; and the catching-up process of latecomer firms in disruptive innovation context is divided into four stages, including the start-up period, fast-growing period, overall catching-up period and transformation period. It provides theoretical and practical implications for Chinese latecomers firms to fulfill catching-up through disruptive innovation.

From archaeological artefact to unlimited heritage concept; Redefining museum collection in disruption era

In the beginning, artefacts are an object studied by archaeology to produce knowledge. Artefact is restored in museum as collection and it is determined as heritage to be used by many people. The last two decades have shown that artefact and heritage have shifted their meaning. Along with that, disruptive era occurring for mainly the last decade has affected various lines of life including museum. The study on the impact of disruptive era on museum is quite rare and specific study on museum in Indonesia has not been established. This paper discusses the impacts of disruptive era on the changing perspective of visitors on museum collection. The methods used are literature studies, observation, and predictive analysis by applying theory of disruptive innovation. This paper explores innovation that needs to be done by using the existing power namely natural condition and social culture of the society as well as people’s participation.

Demystifying Disruptive Innovation Phenomenon: Economic and Societal Impacts

This research aims to demystify disruptive innovation phenomena and its economic and societal impacts. The study is investigative in nature and highlights the gap between the current endorsed disruptive innovation theory and the actual impacts of the phenomena as evident in markets, industries, and societies. The study adopts a positivism philosophical approach and deductive reasoning that builds on secondary data from literature across multiple disciplines that have a strong correlation with the research topic and case study analysis of five market-leading organizations that have significantly impacted their respective industries. The paper presents a comprehensive definition and a conceptual framework that provides an appropriate illustration of the term disruptive innovation based on the conceptual findings. The findings reveal that despite challenging mainstream incumbents, disruptive innovation yields positive impacts on economies, consumers and societies. The research concludes by advocating further research to empirically test the conceptual framework and validate it through primary data and assess its generalizability.

Research on Supply Chain Coordination Based on Block Chain Technology and Customer Random Demand

Based on disruptive innovation and Stackelberg noncooperative game theory, the paper focuses on supply chain coordination under the combined effects of block chain technology and random demand. Firstly, both a decentralized and a centralized supply chain decision models are built in a single-cycle newsvendor random demand situation. Then, through revenue sharing contract the study designs a brand-new supply chain coordination model which is Del trust, decentralized, and traded anonymously. Furthermore, the numerical comparative analysis on the optimal decision and supply chain coordination are conducted. It is found that the whole supply chain revenue can achieve and even beyond the performance level of the centralized supply chain with effectively expanding sales market and reducing supply chain risk. When the retail price is stable and supply chain is coordinated with revenue sharing mechanism, decentralized supply chain can achieve minimum optimal revenue. Coordination results have effect on short-term revenues of block chain members only. Implications and suggestions for future research in supply chain coordination are provided.

A 4-Stage Framework for Disruptive Innovation

The theory of disruptive innovation propounded by Clayton Christensen has been successful in explaining why some seemingly well managed companies fail under the onslaught of some new entrants. Keeping close to Christensen's definition of disruptive innovation, which is termed as 'Christensen disruption' here to highlight its uniqueness, a simple four-stage disruption framework is proposed for the evolution of incumbents and entrants in this special form of disruption. The proposed four-stage disruption framework offers a new and simple insight into understanding the process of Christensen disruption. Applying the framework to the evolution of the Indian domestic low cost carrier (LCC) aviation industry over a 15 year period, it is found that Christensen's theory of disruptive innovation provides a coherent explanation for not only the disruption of the Indian incumbent airlines but also the subsequent evolution of the surviving LCCs.

Exploring the Role of Managers in Nurturing Disruptive Innovations

This paper presents a conceptual framework of managerial activities to foster disruptive innovations. Despite wide recognition of managerial role at middle and lower tiers of organization towards shaping its long-term strategy, the existing research, so far, has lacked in explicitly explaining the managerial activities directed towards the development of disruptive innovations. Authors explored the extant literature on disruptive innovation theory and identified three phases of the disruption process where managers at the middle and lower tiers can play an active role. The authors named this role of managers as their disruptive innovation activities (DIA). Furthermore, manager’s DIA is explored in the context of existing antecedents of manager’s strategic activities and a conceptual framework is proposed along with a resource map for future research, in this direction.

On the Disruptive Innovation Strategy of Renewable Energy Technology Diffusion: An Agent-Based Model

Renewable energy technologies (RETs) are crucial for solving the world’s energy dilemma. However, the diffusion rate of RETs is still dissatisfactory. One critical reason is that conventional energy technologies (CETs) are dominating energy markets. Emergent technologies that have inferior initial performance but eventually become new dominators of markets are frequently observed in various industries, which can be explained with the disruptive innovation theory (DIT). DIT suggests that instead of competing with incumbent technologies in the dominated dimension, redefining the competition on a two-dimensional basis is wise. Aiming at applying DIT to RET diffusion, this research builds an agent-based model (ABM) considering the order of entering the market, price, preference changing and RET improvement rate to simulate the competition dynamics between RETs and CETs. The findings include that the order of entering the market is crucial for a technology’s success; disruptive innovation is an effective approach to cope with the disadvantage of RETs as latecomers; generally, lower price, higher consistency with consumers’ preferences and higher improvement rate in the conventional dimension are beneficial to RET diffusion; counter-intuitively, increasing RET’s improvement rate in the conventional dimension is beneficial to RET diffusion when the network is sparse; while it is harmful when the network is densified.

Adding evidence to the debate: Quantifying Airbnb's disruptive impact on ten key hotel markets

Airbnb's entry into the lodging landscape has dramatically increased the available supply of rooms for accommodating prospective visitors at a destination. In a competitive market, an increase in supply while keeping demand relatively constant would decrease prices and revenues. While Airbnb is expected to negatively impact the hotel industry, the effects of Airbnb on the performance of the hotel industry have not been extensively quantified. Also, existing studies on Airbnb's economic impacts are limited in their inferential, temporal, and/or geographical scope. In view of this gap in the literature, the present study examines the effects of Airbnb supply on key hotel performance metrics: room revenues (RevPAR), average daily rates (ADR), and occupancy rates (OCC) in ten major U.S. hotel markets for the period between July 2008 and June 2017. The results demonstrate that an increasing Airbnb supply negatively impacts all three performance metrics within the hotel industry. Moreover, while previous research has demonstrated a negative impact on lower-end hotels, our findings provide evidence of Airbnb's growing impact on the mainstream market across hotel class segments, signaling a high level of consistency with the tenets of the theory of disruptive innovation. The magnitude of these effects is not only statistically but also economically significant. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Unobtrusive Maintenance: Temporal Complexity, Latent Category Control and the Stalled Emergence of the Cleantech Sector

AbstractDisruptive innovation changes the basis of competition within an industry and poses substantial threats for market incumbents. While researchers have focused on whether incumbents can successfully adapt, we know little about how potentially disruptive innovation may be avoided. Studying clean technology in Canada, we examine incumbent resistance when potentially disruptive technologies are seen as socially beneficial. We identify actions taken by incumbents and other socio‐technical regime actors to respond to the issue while simultaneously enacting legitimate stabilizing mechanisms within the regime’s institutional infrastructure. Specifically, temporal and resource‐based actions led to temporal complexity for disruptive cleantech entrepreneurs, and evaluation structuring work led to latent control of the cleantech category, privileging incumbents and resulting in unobtrusive maintenance. Our findings contribute to the disruptive innovation and institutional theory literatures by showing how disruption may be stalled by the enactment of legitimate elements of the institutional infrastructure rather than direct institutional defence.

A Conceptual Framework for Disruptive Innovation in Advising

Institutions of higher education seek innovative opportunities to keep up with changing student needs. Accordingly, frameworks such as Christensen’s Disruptive Innovation theory may appear attractive on the surface to improve advising practices, but a deeper under-standing of context and objectives is imperative to recognizing the applicability of such frame-works to practice. By clarifying what Disruptive Innovation is, and is not (i.e., sustaining innovation), it has been argued that the theory has been misunderstood and misapplied (Christensen et al., “What is Disruptive Innovation?”). A closer look reveals that in addition to benefits, the Disruptive Innovation framework also poses a number of challenges to advising. This study sets out to (1) clarify the theoretical framework of Disruptive Innovation and explore the relationship between Disruptive Innovation and advising; (2) examine the extent to which Disruptive Innovation theory can be applied in advising, via a case study; and (3) discuss the implications for Disruptive Innovation in advising.

Disruptive potential of real estate crowdfunding in the real estate project finance industry

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review the literature on the Disruptive Innovation Theory and on the disruptive potential of real estate crowdfunding (RECF) in the real estate finance industry, assessing whether RECF constitutes a potentially disruptive innovation to the real estate finance industry. Based on a review and synthesis of the literature, the paper advances an initial conceptual framework of core characteristics of disruptive innovations. This framework is used to examine the disruptive potential of RECF in the real estate finance industry.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is a systematic literature review that synthesizes and analyzes relevant extant research articles retrieved from online databases.FindingsFindings suggest that according to the theory of disruptive innovations, and the core characteristics of disruptive innovations, RECF is a potentially disruptive innovation to the real estate finance industry. RECF seems to generally align with the classic characteristics of disruptive innovations. A more comprehensive and systematic analysis, supported by empirical data, is necessary to evaluate whether and to what extent RECF constitutes a disruptive innovation to the real estate finance industry.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has only captured and reviewed articles published and available in database searches. RECF is a nascent field that has recently begun receiving academic attention.Practical implicationsReal estate plays an integral part in the economy, and the way it is financed has become an increasingly important issue following the Global Financial Crisis. This paper provides useful insights for assessing whether and to what extent RECF may be disruptive to the real estate finance industry.Social implicationsRECF may potentially improve accessibility and affordability of real estate finance, thereby helping to address the problem of shortage of real estate project finance.Originality/valueWhile RECF is portrayed in the academic and gray literature as a disruptive innovation, its disruptive potential is yet to be determined. This paper advances an initial conceptual framework of defining characteristics of disruptive innovations. This framework is used to evaluate RECF as a potentially disruptive innovation in the real estate project finance industry. This study forms a basis for future empirical examination of the disruptive potential of RECF in the real estate finance industry.

Strategy shift: Integrating strategy and the firm’s capability to innovate

Innovation is a key source of organizational growth and profitability. Many organizations at the front end of innovation struggle to engender an innovation approach that is effective and lasting. This article presents a framework that defines the interdependency of innovation and strategy, and then outlines the role of top management to continuously renew the positioning of the firm. Based on a synthesis of prior research—including the Dynamic Capabilities View, Innovation Orientation, and Disruptive Innovation Theory—and our own experience working with organizations, we present an operational strategy shift framework, which allows practitioners to increase, refine, and transform their firm’s capability to innovate (CTI) toward achieving their strategic objectives. This framework provides guidance that leaders can use to integrate innovation into their strategic process.

Disruptive network innovation in free guided tours

ABSTRACTThis article provides an analysis on how disruptive innovation is spurred by the dynamics of digital and analogue networks in the sharing economy. The analysis builds on a free guided-tour company in Copenhagen. Data is collected in a bottom-up reiterative process, drawing on theories on disruptive innovation and network theory. Between 2013 and 2016, one of the free tour companies in Copenhagen was followed by means of participant observations, interviews with tour guides and interpretation of online documents. Results show that free guided tours based on tips alone and orchestrated within the frame of the sharing economy are not merely a product innovation. More importantly, they entail disruptive market innovations that circumvent traditional industry structures and ultimately produce disruptive organizational innovations where trust in network is the crux. Free guided-tour companies operate as communitarian organizations in extractive business models, and they are game changers in the field of guided tours, and ultimately in the field of tourism.

Are High-Impact Practices Library Programs the Next Disruptive Innovation for Instruction Programs?

As the landscape within higher education continues to shift and learningsuccess initiatives become more distributed and complex, many library instruction programs are faced with difficult choices. In order to remain sustainable while also providing stable services to faculty and students, some libraries have adopted the theory of disruptive innovation to guide their instruction program strategy. This article briefly introduces the theory of disruptive innovation and questions whether high-impact library instruction practices (HIPs) have the potential to be a disruptive innovation. &nbsp

Incumbents as disruptor and their disruptive behaviour enabling disruptive innovation: case study of high performance and low cost CPU and foundry market

ABSTRACTThe ability and role of incumbents to enable and sustain disruptive innovation is underestimated so far, compared with new entrants. Thus, this research aimed to observe incumbents’ role as a disruptor and their disruptive behaviours to enable disruptive innovation in different market segments. Based on two case studies of CPU and foundry markets, it was observed that incumbents enabled disruptive innovation by adjusting disruptive window in the context of performance trajectories and discontinuous time, and they sustained their market leadership by having advantages through continuous cost reduction and accumulated technological knowledge in high performance and low cost market. This study has extended the theory of disruptive innovation by including incumbents’ role and their disruptive behaviours and has practical implications as well for incumbents and new entrants to establish competitive technology strategy at the organisation as well as national level.

Does your school need a chief innovation officer?

In their book The Innovative University, published in 2011, Clayton M. Christensen and Henry J. Eyring define the “theory of disruptive innovation.” The authors maintain that although the traditional university is indispensable, technology and innovation are disrupting the status quo.

Disruptive Innovation Patterns Driven by Mega-Projects: A Sustainable Development Pattern Case of China’s High-Speed Rail

Sustainable development of mega-projects has drawn many concerns around the world. The theory of disruptive innovation in mega-projects is a typical sustainable development pattern but still lacks systematic understanding. This article takes China’s high-speed rail (CHSR) project as an example to analyze the disruptive innovation pattern of mega-projects. First, this paper systematically traces the theories of disruptive innovation and summarizes the connotations of disruptive innovation. Simultaneously, from the historical development of several typical mega-projects in China, this paper summarizes the connotations of mega-projects. Based on two connotations, this paper summarizes the theoretical basis of disruptive innovation in mega-projects. Second, this paper takes the CHSR project as a case to analyze its innovation pattern from the analysis of the development process, operation mechanism and influence in sustainability; the disruptive innovation pattern is put forward afterward. Third, the discussion is drawn from the perspectives of the characteristics, scope of application and innovation environment of the disruptive innovation of CHSR. Last, the conclusions of this article are summarized.

The overlooked role of embeddedness in disruptive innovation theory

Disruptive innovation theory assumes that primary and secondary performance dimensions as well as price influence adoption and use differently depending on the product category. Study 1 tests this premise using a large and heterogeneous sample of consumers. We surveyed 871 users in three traditional, high-cost product categories (business software, video games, conventional TV) and three related, potentially disruptive, low-cost product categories (mobile business apps, mobile games, internet TV). The study does not find systematic differences between the effects of more technologically-oriented performance dimensions or price on adoption. Following an explanatory mixed-methods approach, Study 2, which relies on 32 in-depth interviews with consumers, shows that product embeddedness, a more socially-oriented dimension, may play a decisive role in explaining the results. Embeddedness, defined as the degree to which a product is anchored in the social, market and technological system of the user, is an important moderator that complements extant theory and may thus help to better understand the dynamics of disruptive innovations.

Exponential Growth in Product Performance and Its Implications for Disruptive Innovation Theory

This research studies the theory of disruptive innovation. It identifies the strengths and weakness of the theory, and focuses on the concept of product performance as an incomplete notion that needs further study. By using quantitative and qualitative evidence from the disk drive industry, the semiconductor industry, and the personal and mobile computing industries, this research tests Clayton Christensen’s disruption theory, the main theory proposed today as an explanation of disruption. In order to understand the phenomenon of over-serving customer needs this research analyzed the curves of performance improvement in disk drives, semiconductors, and personal and mobile computing devices from 1974 to 2015. Further historical analysis was used to contextualize this data and explain the implications that performance improvements had on usage and customer value. The main finding of this research was identifying that the rate of improvement of a technology’s performance is not often faster than the rate at which customer needs increase over time, instead both curves adapt to each other as companies adjust their offer and innovations transform performance gains into customer value. This contradicts a key hypothesis of disruption theory. Finally, in order to account for these results this research used the notion of elasticity and coined a new concept: ‘elasticity of customer needs’, which describes the responsiveness of the performance demanded by customers to a change in the performance offered by companies, especially when new value is created. This concept furthers the understanding of performance and complements the theory of disruptive innovation.