文档介绍：FA 2
March 4, 2005 18:35 WSPC/150-IJIM 00116
International Journal of Innovation Management
Vol. 9, No. 1 (March 2005) pp. 1–17
© Imperial College Press
DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES: AN EXPANDED VIEW
JAMES M. UTTERBACK
. Sloan School of Management and
. School of Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
******@
HAPPY J. ACEE
Delphi Harrison Thermal Systems
Rockport, NY, USA
Received 2 April 2004
Revised 12 September 2004
Accepted 8 January 2005
The term “disruptive technology” as coined by Christensen (1997, The Innovator’s
Dilemma; How New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. Harvard Business School
Press) refers to a new technology having lower cost and performance measured by tradi-
tional criteria, but having higher ancillary performance. Christensen finds that disruptive
technologies may enter and expand emerging market niches, improving with time and ulti-
mately attacking established products in their traditional markets. This conception, while
useful, is also limiting in several important ways.
By emphasising only “attack from below” Christensen ignores other discontinuous pat-
terns of change, which may be of equal or greater importance (Utterback, 1994, Master-
ing the Dynamics of Innovation. Harvard Business School Press; Acee, 2001, SM Thesis,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Further, the true importance of disruptive technol-
ogy, even in Christensen’s conception of it is not that it may displace established products.
Rather, it is a powerful means for enlarging and broadening markets and providing new
functionality.
In Christensen’s theory of disruptive technology, the establishment of a new market
segment acts to channel the new product to the leading edge of the market or the early
adopters. Once the innovation reaches the early to late majority of users it begins pete
with the established product in its traditional market. Here we presen