TY - JOUR
T1 - Nuanced role of relevant prior experience
T2 - Sales takeoff of disruptive products and product innovation with disrupted technology in industrial robotics
AU - Roy, Raja
AU - Islam, Mazhar
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright 2017 by Emerald Publishing Limited. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - We investigate product innovation by a cohort of entrants who use technology that eventually suffers disruption. We concentrate on two types of entrants - those with and those without relevant prior experience in the disrupted technology. Using the industrial robotics industry as the context of our study, we explore product innovation using disrupted technology during two time periods: the first prior to sales takeoff of the disruptive products and the second subsequent to takeoff. We find that the two types of entrants did not differ in product innovation prior to takeoff, but firms with prior experience in the disrupted technology manufactured more innovative products subsequent to the sales takeoff of disruptive products. Our research underscores that the boundary conditions of the utility of prior experience is more nuanced than that which literature suggests - it affects product innovation only in the post-sales takeoff period when the demand uncertainties are relatively low. Our findings also suggest that the boundary conditions of Christensen's thesis are narrower than predicted by prior literature.
AB - We investigate product innovation by a cohort of entrants who use technology that eventually suffers disruption. We concentrate on two types of entrants - those with and those without relevant prior experience in the disrupted technology. Using the industrial robotics industry as the context of our study, we explore product innovation using disrupted technology during two time periods: the first prior to sales takeoff of the disruptive products and the second subsequent to takeoff. We find that the two types of entrants did not differ in product innovation prior to takeoff, but firms with prior experience in the disrupted technology manufactured more innovative products subsequent to the sales takeoff of disruptive products. Our research underscores that the boundary conditions of the utility of prior experience is more nuanced than that which literature suggests - it affects product innovation only in the post-sales takeoff period when the demand uncertainties are relatively low. Our findings also suggest that the boundary conditions of Christensen's thesis are narrower than predicted by prior literature.
KW - Prior experience
KW - Product innovation
KW - Technological disruption
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U2 - 10.1108/S0742-332220170000037004
DO - 10.1108/S0742-332220170000037004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85029582566
SN - 0742-3322
VL - 37
SP - 81
EP - 111
JO - Advances in Strategic Management
JF - Advances in Strategic Management
ER -