Disruption Versus Discontinuity: Definition and Research Perspective From Behavioral Economics

This paper promotes a new academic research perspective for the analysis of industrial innovation and technological development. Specifically, it aims to apply the prescriptions of behavioral economics to conjecture, which can be the result of the battle between the firms established in a mainstream market and their disruptive or discontinuous attackers. Sometimes, differentiating between disruption and discontinuity can be misleading. Therefore, the paper proposes a definition of disruptive technology that clearly sets its necessary and sufficient conditions. This definition expands Christensen's—the pioneer and the driver behind the concept of disruptive technology—opening it to include additional casuistry. It also causes the elaboration of an additional graphic representation. This paper contributes to the academic field in several ways. First, it facilitates the understanding of a very confusing concept that results from an inconsistent use of the term in the literature. Second, it proposes a new research perspective that, in addition to explain the existing and sometimes surprising empirical evidence, also opens novel and numerous future research avenues. The contributions for business practice are the recommendations that managers can derive to improve their decision making processes related to the potential attacks of emerging technologies, differentiating between disruptive and discontinuous technologies.