How History Shaped the Innovator's Dilemma. Issue 1 (2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Nicholas, Tom
• Is Part Of: Business history review. Volume 95:Issue 1(2021)
• Page Start: 121
• Page End: 148
• Publication Date: 2021
• Subjects: Innovation, -- disruptive innovation, -- Clayton Christensen, -- Harvard Business School, -- rigid disk drive, -- Innovator's Dilemma; Business -- Periodicals; Business -- History -- Periodicals; 330.09
• DOI: 10.1017/S0007680520000537
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0007-6805

Abstract

Abstract : In 1993, four years prior to the publication of Clayton Christensen's highly influential book, The Innovator's Dilemma, the Business History Review published an article by Christensen titled "The Rigid Disk Drive Industry: A History of Commercial and Technological Turbulence." The article relates the theory of disruptive innovation to Alfred D. Chandler's work on large vertically integrated enterprises. It was published during a pivotal era of scholarship on innovation, management practice, and industry evolution, much of which used the history of firms, industries, and technologies to build theory. I survey the impact and critiques of Christensen's research agenda, highlighting how it illustrates where the boundaries associated with the "lessons of history" should be drawn.