Joseph L. Bower

“Joseph L. Bower at Harvard University”

“Bower and Christensen (1995) coined the term “disruptive technologies” and Christensen (1997) further describes the theory of disruptive innovations.”

“Our findings support many of the conclusions of the resource dependence theorists, who contend that a firm's scope for strategic change is strongly bounded by the interests of external entities (customers, in this study) who provide the resources the firm needs to survive.”

“We contest the conclusions of scholars such as Tushman and Anderson (1986), who have argued that incumbent firms are most threatened by attacking entrants when the innovation in question destroys, or does not build upon, the competence of the firm. We observe that established firms, though often at great cost, have led their industries in developing critical competence-destroying technologies, when the new technology was needed to meet existing customers’ demands.”

“Each time a {{w|disruptive technology}} emerged, between one-half and two-thirds of the established manufacturers failed to introduce models employing the new architecture-in stark contrast to their timely launches of critical sustaining technologies.”

“Different types of technological innovations affect performance trajectories in different ways. On the one hand, sustaining technologies tend to maintain a rate of improvement; that is, they give customers something more or better in the attributes they already value... On the other hand, disruptive technologies introduce a very different package of attributes from the one mainstream customers historically value, and they often perform far worse along one or two dimensions that are particularly important to those customers.”

“One of the most consistent patterns in business is the failure of leading companies to stay at the top of their industries when technologies or markets change. {{w|Goodyear}} and {{w|Firestone}} entered the radial-tire market quite late. Xerox let Canon create the small-copier market. Bucyrus-Erie allowed Caterpillar and Deere to take over the mechanical excavator market. Sears gave way to {{w|Wal-Mart}}.”

“The leading attempt at a complete normative theory of planning and resource allocation is provided by the concept of "strategy."”

“To make further progress it is necessary to go beyond the financial model.”

“While evidence reveals the relative unimportance of a particular technique of financial analysis and limited usefulness of the [theoretical] financial model, it also indicates that management can control the investment process.”

“[Firms rotate managers ] across functional and divisional lines to help build cooperative climate and contribute to the development of generalist viewpoints... [This practice moves] managers at the business level... where new strategic ideas are developed... every two to three years.”

“The definitive examination of strategic investment from the viewpoint of the people who run the company--the CEO and principal officers. Includes four case histories that follow specific investment projects from their inception to their approval by top management.”