Disruptive Innovation – A Strategy for New Product Development?

Disruptive Innovations have the ability to completely change the market within which they interact. They can do this to a much greater degree than sustaining innovations. Disruptive products encroach on the mainstream through two methods. Either they will offer a radical advancement in technology, or they will offer an alternative benefit at the expense of traditional performance criteria, allowing a new market to be created which ultimately becomes the mainstream. The aim of this study was to investigate whether disruptive innovation, when used as a strategy in the development of new products, can guarantee success. Performance attributes and consumer perceptions of disruptive products were analysed in order to gain a greater understanding of the importance of disruption and whether or not it could be used as a tool to ensure success.