A reflective review of disruptive innovation theory

Abstract

This paper is devoted to integrate and discuss the latest arguments on the Disruptive Innovation theory, and to provoke questions for further research. The key issues have been summarized into three major perspectives: (1) "What is disruptive technology and disruptive innovation", including the evolution, description, and the actual definition of disruptive innovation. (2) "The predictive use of the theory" and (3) "How to enable a potential disruptive innovation". After an extensive and reflective review, we have found that the research focus to-date has well studied the business model and organizational challenges of exploiting disruptive innovation. There is a trend to tailor abundant knowledge and tools of marketing literature to study identification of emerging markets and customers' latent needs. The technology perspective received very limited coverage and a significant amount of research is recommended on the purposeful creation of candidate technologies for disruptive innovation. A series of potential inhibitors and enablers of Disruptive Innovation are also identified as managerial "take-away". © 2008 PICMET.