De The Zeitgeist Movement
Disruptive technology is a term used in business and technology literature to describe innovations that improve a product or service in ways threatening a monopoly on the existing market, for example by tampering with artificial scarcity. Such "scarcity" is established over many years and at great expenses. This to the effect that funds dedicated to removing such technologies from the market may grow to incomprehensible size.
The resource allocation processes in established companies aims to maximize financial gain through innovations aimed at existing markets. When Disruptive Innovations appear the established industry either floods the market with advertisement, crawls up into a niche or finds some other means to deal with the "problem". Simply buying the lesser company and shutting it down may be the most profitable solution.
At the end of the day the game of disrupting the disruption doesn't make any sense from the end user perspective. Likewise it is often impossible for corporations to adopt innovation on a large scale without risking bankruptcy while the people behind the company might love the idea. CEO's are obligated to aim for short term financial gain and investors are often obligated not to interfere in operations thus effectively placing the decision outside human control.
external links
- http://www.claytonchristensen.com/disruptive_innovation.html the inventor of the term.
- http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/594 The Innovator's Prescription: A Disruptive Solution to the Healthcare Crisis - Clayton Christensen
- http://www.pcworld.com/article/143474/the_10_most_disruptive_technology_combinations.html some historical examples.