Disruptive Technologies or Big-Bang Disruption: A Research Gap in Marketing Studies

Abstract

The term disruption has widely been used across industries to conjure the innovation concept and support such discussions in different contexts, but what disruptive technology means and what characteristics of disruptive technologies or innovations are. Based on Christensen’s (Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma When New Technologies Cause Great Firmsto Fail. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Massachusetts, 1997, [1]) theory of disruptive innovation and big-bang disruption of Downes and Nunes (Harv Bus Rev, 44–56, 2013, [2]), this paper deeps dive into the concept of disruptive technology and big-bang disruption to discover the main features of such disruptions. It looks at the two concepts to uncover the characteristics of such disruptions and signify their differences. It reveals a research gap to be further studied and proposes empirical research to validate whether the traditional technology adoption of Rogers is applicable to disruptive innovations, or the newly proposed model of Downes and Nunes (Harv Bus Rev, 44–56, 2013, [2]), is more valid. The missing link is the lack of having the right marketing strategy for products and services which were born based on the theory of Big-Bang Disruption. Hence, the paper looks at the academic literature and presents some of the most relevant scholars’ outlook on disruption concept. It proposes the methodological strategies and the approach for the future study, which is positivism. It discusses the research design that is “case study” and its method of measurement and concludes by the expected contribution.