A Reflective Review of Disruptive Innovation Theory

Abstract

Disruptive Innovation Theory has created a significant impact on management practices and aroused plenty of rich debate within academia. Copious as the studies are, the scattered and conflicting nature of the literature on disruptive innovation in the last decade may pose a state of ambiguity for future research, thus necessitating a comprehensive review at this juncture. This paper first clarifies the basic concept and potential misinterpretations of the theory. Believing in the predictive value of the theory on firm performance, the authors then summarize and critique the research on how to enable potential disruptive innovation from internal, external, marketing and technology perspectives. The different perspectives inspired the authors to identify a number of key research directions within the disruptive innovation research domain. Potential future research is also briefly discussed by integrating disruptive innovation with other research domains, such as open innovation. Finally, in addition to theoretical contributions, the authors make practical contributions by outlining a series of potential inhibitors and enablers of disruptive innovation as managerial 'take-aways'.

Antecedents and implications of disruptive innovation: Evidence from China

“…A substantial body of literature has explored the conditions under which disruptive innovation is likely to arise from an organisation, including its resource allocation processes (Chao & Kavadias, 2007;Hogan, 2005;Nelson & Winter, 1982); its organisational structure (Cohen & Klepper, 1996;Lee & Chen, 2009;Tsai & Wang, 2005); and its organisational culture (Henderson, 2006;Tushman & O'Reilly, 2002). Despite the progress, the nature of the innovation processes that enable disruptive innovation deserves further examination (Yu & Hang, 2010). In particular, our understanding of what kinds of R&D and opportunity discovery and creation processes are likely to give rise to disruptive innovation is limited.…”

Innovations in Sustainable Tourism

“…Although much interest and research has been invested into the field of innovation due to its wide scope and significance in every industry, especially technology, even a standard definition of the term has yet to become accepted by the academic community (Yu and Hang, 2010;Markides, 2006;Sears and Baba, 2011;McElroy, 2006). The issues associated with innovation research are amplified in the tourism industry as the ambiguous definitions make it difficult to know which new ideas and concepts can be classified as innovations.…”

“…On the most basic level, a consensus has been reached that an innovation consists of a creative new idea that is brought forth and applied to provide some type of business value (Sears and Baba, 2011;Yu and Hang, 2010). According to Carlsen et al (2008: 3), innovation can be described as "a catalytic development process that activates a number of processes according to a new situation".…”

Investigating the feasibility of supply chain-centric business models in 3D chocolate printing: A simulation study

“…However, it is important to also consider the level of maturity of this innovation in the food industry. An immature disruptive innovation cannot substitute the traditional business (Yu and Hang, 2010). 3D chocolate printing technology requires high quality of raw materials since the chocolate viscosity affects the quality of the end product; such conditions increase the operational problems (Finkel, 1987;Lipton, 2010).Accordingly, although 3D chocolate printing technology has enormous potentials to change food innovation, it is not a disruptive innovation just yet as it currently is a new and immature technology for manufacturing.…”

“…In business, innovation is divided into two broad categories: (1) continuous or dynamic evolutionary innovation, which brings about incremental advances in technology or processes; and (2) disruptive innovations, which is the emergent or step-function innovation (Yu and Hang, 2010). Disruptive innovation is the introduction of new technology, products or services, as well as the efforts to promote, reform and obtain superiority in the competition and mainly includes business-model innovation and technology innovation (Markides, 2006).…”