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The Ongoing Process of Building a Theory of Disruption
Author(s) -
Christensen Clayton M.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of product innovation management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.646
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1540-5885
pISSN - 0737-6782
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5885.2005.00180.x
Subject(s) - citation , computer science , sociology , library science , management , economics
The easiest way to respond to the critiques and complements the other authors in this issue have written about the model of disruption would simply be to address them head on—to accept some as useful additions or corrections and to suggest that others are ill-founded. Because this special issue of JPIM represents a unique opportunity to examine the process of theory-building as it unfolds, however, this article is structured in a way that addresses the other scholars’ suggestions in the context of a model of the process by which theory is built and improved. My hope in doing so is that this issue might not just be an examination of this particular theory of disruptive innovation but that it might also constitute a case study about theory-building itself—a study that can help scholars of management in different fields to conceptualize how the theory-building process is or is not at work in their domain—and how they might help the process work better.