How to Create a Breakthrough Innovation: Futures Research Methodologies for Disruptive Innovation

Literature Review

The term “innovation” was used with the modern meaning for the first time by Schumpeter in 20th century. According to Schumpeter, innovation is defined to a product, process or organizational changes, stressing that they do not necessarily originate from new scientific discoveries (Schumpeter 1934). The definition of innovation provided by Gibbons et al. (1994) emphasized that the technology must satisfy the market needs. Abernathy and Clark (1985), suggest that disruptive innovations destroy the value of existing technical competencies.

However, as pointed by Bower and Christensen (1995) the traditional companies tend to focus on current customers and markets, not address customer’s needs, contributing to the failure of leading companies to maintain at the top of their industries. This myopia of the established leaders in seeing the customer needs and learn from the experience of previous failures, helps disruptors (normally small organizations able to change the product and market strategy quickly) gain a competitive advantage in the market.

In a recent detailed examination of disruptive Innovation, Christensen et al. (2015) categorized the innovation in 3 groups.

• 1.

  Sustaining Innovations: Represented by improvements in products that companies can sell with higher profits to their best customers. Usually provide performance improvements in attributes that are the most valued by the most demanding customers. For example, a company that create a better / quicker / lighter / more beautiful computer is not necessary disrupting apple’s macbook business, but a sustaining innovation

• 2.

  Low End Disruptions: Target well customers at the competitive market. Traditionally developed for companies already in position in a market, introduce a higher quality products to satisfy their most profitable customers (high end of market), overshooting the needs of low end and the mainstream customers. This leaves an opportunity for new entrants to find footholds in the less profitable segments. These usually offer ‘good enough’ performance.

• 3.

  New-Market Disruptions: Opening new markets, by focusing on customers who may lacked the money or skills to buy/use the product.