ABSTRACT

Disruptive innovation has attracted significant scholarly and managerial interest. In the existing research, there is ongoing debate about the nature of disruptive innovation and who initiates it. The related question of how incumbents can deal with disruption, let alone initiate it, has not been extensively addressed. To bridge these gaps, we conceptualised disruptive innovation as ‘a market outcome in which new offerings successfully challenge established ones in a given market’. This definition enables studying a wide range of disruptive strategies. We then analysed communication about disruptive innovation in the press releases of 101 S&P 500 firms between 2005 and 2014, along with the subsequent outcomes of those disruptive intentions until the end of 2019. The infrequency of references to disruptive innovation in the press releases seems to suggest that disruption is a rather rare issue for these firms. Nevertheless, a content analysis of press releases and secondary data suggests that large incumbent firms employ a number of distinct strategies to initiate disruption. While some of these strategies were not unexpected, others were more surprising and led in many cases to positive market outcomes. Our findings suggest that disruptive innovation is not necessarily a threat but may present many opportunities for established businesses.

摘要

颠覆性创新引起了学术界和管理界的极大兴趣。在现有的研究中，关于颠覆性创新的性质以及是谁发起的争论一直存在。现有企业如何应对颠覆（更不用说引发颠覆）的相关问题尚未得到广泛解决。为了弥合这些差距，我们将颠覆性创新概念化为“新产品成功挑战特定市场中现有产品的市场成果”。该定义使研究范围广泛的破坏性策略成为可能。然后，我们分析了 2005 年至 2014 年间 101 家标准普尔 500 指数公司的新闻稿中有关颠覆性创新的沟通，以及这些颠覆性意图的后续结果，直到 2019 年底。新闻稿中很少提及颠覆性创新似乎表明，对于这些公司来说，颠覆性创新是一个相当罕见的问题。尽管如此，对新闻稿和二手数据的内容分析表明，大型现有公司采用了许多不同的策略来发起颠覆。虽然其中一些策略并不出人意料，但其他策略更令人惊讶，并在许多情况下带来了积极的市场结果。我们的研究结果表明，颠覆性创新不一定是威胁，但可能为成熟企业带来许多机会。虽然其中一些策略并不出人意料，但其他策略更令人惊讶，并在许多情况下带来了积极的市场结果。我们的研究结果表明，颠覆性创新不一定是威胁，但可能为成熟企业带来许多机会。虽然其中一些策略并不出人意料，但其他策略更令人惊讶，并在许多情况下带来了积极的市场结果。我们的研究结果表明，颠覆性创新不一定是威胁，但可能为成熟企业带来许多机会。