Editing Disruptive innovation (section)

==Usage history==
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<div style="font-size:120%; text-align:center;">'''Christensen's Types of Innovation'''<ref name=Christensen2003p_xviii>{{Harvnb|Christensen|1997|p=xviii}}. Christensen describes as "revolutionary" innovations as "discontinuous" "sustaining innovations"</ref></div>
;Sustaining
:An innovation that does not significantly affect existing markets. It may be either:
;Evolutionary
:An innovation that improves a product in an existing market in ways that customers are expecting (e.g., [[fuel injection]] for gasoline engines, which displaced [[carburetor]]s.)
;Revolutionary (discontinuous but sustaining)
:An innovation that is unexpected, but nevertheless does not affect existing markets (e.g., the first [[automobile]]s in the late 19th century, which were expensive luxury items, and as such very few were sold)
;Disruptive
:An innovation that creates a ''new'' market or enters at the bottom of an existing market by providing a different set of values, which ultimately (and unexpectedly) overtakes incumbents (e.g., the lower-priced, affordable [[Ford Model T]], which displaced horse-drawn carriages)
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The term '''''disruptive technologies''''' was coined by [[Clayton M. Christensen]] and introduced in his 1995 article ''Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave'',<ref>Bower, Joseph L. & Christensen, Clayton M. (1995). The concept of new technologies leading to wholesale economic change is an older idea; [[Joseph Schumpeter]] adapted the idea of creative destruction from [[Karl Marx]]. Schumpeter (1949) in one of his examples used "the railroadization of the Middle West as it was initiated by the Illinois Central". He wrote, "The Illinois Central not only meant very good business whilst it was built and whilst new cities were built around it and land was cultivated, but it spelled the death sentence for the [old] agriculture of the West."Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave" ''[[Harvard Business Review]]'', January–February 1995</ref> which he cowrote with Joseph Bower. The article is aimed at both management executives who make the funding or purchasing decisions in companies, as well as the research community, which is largely responsible for introducing the disruptive vector to the consumer market. He describes the term further in his book ''[[The Innovator's Dilemma]]''.{{sfn|Christensen|1997}} ''Innovator's Dilemma'' explored the case of the disk drive industry (the disk drive and memory industry, with its rapid technological evolution, is to the study of technology what fruit flies are to the study of genetics, as Christensen was told in the 1990s{{sfn|Christensen|1997|p=3}}) and the excavating and Earth-moving industry (where [[hydraulic machinery|hydraulic actuation]] slowly, yet eventually,  displaced cable-actuated machinery). In his sequel with Michael E. Raynor, ''The Innovator's Solution'',{{sfn|Christensen|Raynor|2003}} Christensen replaced the term ''disruptive technology'' with ''disruptive innovation'' because he recognized that most technologies are not intrinsically disruptive or sustaining in character; rather, it is the ''business model'' that identifies the crucial idea that potentiates profound market success and subsequently serves as the disruptive vector. Comprehending Christensen's business model, which takes the disruptive vector from the idea borne from the mind of the innovator to a marketable product, is central to understanding how novel technology facilitates the rapid destruction of established technologies and markets by the disruptor. Christensen and Mark W. Johnson, who cofounded the management consulting firm [[Innosight]], described the dynamics of "business model innovation" in the 2008 ''[[Harvard Business Review]]'' article "Reinventing Your Business Model".<ref>Johnson, Mark, Christensen, Clayton, et al., 2008, "Reinventing Your Business Model, ''Harvard Business Review'', December 2008.</ref> The concept of disruptive technology continues a long tradition of identifying radical technological  change in the study of [[innovation]] by economists, and its implementation and execution   by its management at a corporate or policy level.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Taeihagh |first=Araz |date=July 3, 2023 |title=Addressing Policy Challenges of Disruptive Technologies |journal=Journal of Economic Policy Reform |language=en |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=239–249 |doi=10.1080/17487870.2023.2238867 |issn=1748-7870|doi-access=free }}</ref>

According to Christensen, "the term 'disruptive innovation' is misleading when it is used to refer to the derivative, or 'instantaneous value', of the market behavior of the product or service, rather than the integral, or 'sum over histories', of the product's market behavior."<ref name=":0" />

In the late 1990s, the automotive sector began to embrace a perspective of "constructive disruptive technology" by working with the consultant David E. O'Ryan, whereby the use of current off-the-shelf technology was integrated with newer innovation to create what he called "an unfair advantage". The process or technology change as a whole had to be "constructive" in improving the current method of manufacturing, yet disruptively impact the whole of the business case model, resulting in a significant reduction of waste, energy, materials, labor, or legacy costs to the user.

In keeping with the insight that a persuasive advertising campaign can be just as effective as technological sophistication at bringing a successful product to market, Christensen's theory explains why many disruptive innovations are not advanced or useful technologies, rather combinations of existing off-the-shelf components, applied shrewdly to a fledgling value network.

Online news site [[TechRepublic]] proposes an end using the term, and similar related terms, suggesting that, as of 2014, it is overused jargon.<ref>Conner Forrest, May 1, 2014, 5:52 AM PST, https://www.techrepublic.com/article/startup-jargon-10-terms-to-stop-using/</ref>

=== Definition ===

* Disruption is a process, not a product or service, that occurs from the nascent to the mainstream 
* Originates in low-end (less demanding customers) or new market (where none existed) footholds
* New firms don not catch on with mainstream customers until quality catches up with their standards
* Success is not a requirement and some business can be disruptive but fail
* New firm's business model differs significantly from incumbent<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://hbr.org/2015/12/what-is-disruptive-innovation|title=What Is Disruptive Innovation?|last1=Christensen|first1=Clayton M.|date=December 1, 2015|work=Harvard Business Review|access-date=June 25, 2019|last2=Raynor|first2=Michael E.|issue=December 2015|issn=0017-8012|last3=McDonald|first3=Rory}}</ref>

Christensen continues to develop and refine the theory and has accepted that not all examples of disruptive innovation perfectly fit into his theory. For example, he conceded that originating in the low end of the market is not always a cause of disruptive innovation, but rather it fosters competitive business models, using [[Uber]] as an example. In an interview with ''[[Forbes]]'' magazine he stated:

{{quote|Uber helped me realize that it isn't that being at the bottom of the market is the causal mechanism, but that it's correlated with a business model that is unattractive to its competitor.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestreptalks/2016/10/03/clayton-christensen-on-what-he-got-wrong-about-disruptive-innovation/|title=Clayton Christensen On What He Got Wrong About Disruptive Innovation|last=Adams|first=Susan|website=Forbes|language=en|access-date=2019-10-16}}</ref>}}

Entrepreneur [[Chris Dixon]] cited the theory for the idea that "the next big thing always starts out being dismissed as a 'toy{{'"}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://cdixon.org/2010/01/03/the-next-big-thing-will-start-out-looking-like-a-toy |title=The next big thing will start out looking like a toy |date=January 3, 2010 |author=[[Chris Dixon]]}}</ref>