文档介绍：J. Eng. Technol. Manage. 20 (2003) 345–365
Delayed creative destruction and the
coexistence of technologies
Anil Nair a,∗, David Ahlstrom b
a Department of Business Administration, College of Business and Public Administration,
Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA
b Department of Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong, PR China
Abstract
Disruptive innovations often engage in a fierce battle with incumbent technologies for hegemony.
Past studies on technological innovations are silent about factors that extend the duration of the
‘era of ferment’—that is, the period during peting technologies fight for dominance.
We argue plexity of the underlying technology, ecological and institutional dynamics may
permit coexistence peting technology regimes. The paper illustrates such coexistence by
discussing the persistence of disparate technologies in steel making and kidney disease treatment.
We conclude that the process of ‘creative destruction’ can be delayed in certain settings.
© 2003 Elsevier . All rights reserved.
Keywords: Technology persistence; Technology cycle; Disruptive technology
1. Introduction
petence-destroying technological innovations within an industry set in mo-
tion a battle for dominance between the incumbent and new technologies (Cooper and
Schendel, 1976; Tushman and Anderson, 1986; Anderson and Tushman, 1990). This pe-
riod of turbulence is thought to culminate with the emergence of a dominant technologi-
cal design (Abernathy and Utterback, 1978; Clark, 1985; Tushman and Anderson, 1986;
Anderson and Tushman, 1990) and the ushering in of an era of sustaining technologies
(Christensen, 1997). The winning technology, of course, does not necessarily have to be
the superior technology (Arthur, 1996; David, 1985; Garud et al., 1997). Instead, dominant
designs emerge through a process of social, economic and political negotiation and selec-
tion (Bijker et al., 1987; Garud and Ra