Management Papers
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of this Version
10-1-2002
Publication Source
California Management Review
Volume
45
Issue
1
Start Page
50
Last Page
66
DOI
10.2307/41166153
Abstract
What is discontinuous about the moment of radical technological change? We suggest that the discontinuity typically does not lie in a radical advancement in technology itself; rather, the discontinuity stems from a shift of an existing technical lineage to a new domain of application. Seeming revolutions such as wireless communication and the internet did not stem from an isolated technical breakthrough. Rather, the spectacular commercial impact was achieved when an existing technology was re-applied in a new application domain. We use the biological notion of speciation events, which form the basis for the theory of punctuated equilibrium, to reconcile the process of incremental change within a given line of technical development with the radical change associated with the shift of an existing technology to a new application domain. We then use this lens to explore how managers can cope with, and potentially exploit, such change processes.
Copyright/Permission Statement
Ron Adner & Daniel A. Levinthal, The Emergence of Emerging Technologies, California Management Review (45:1) pp. 50-66. Copyright © 2002 SAGE. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.
Recommended Citation
Adner, R., & Levinthal, D. A. (2002). The Emergence of Emerging Technologies. California Management Review, 45 (1), 50-66. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/41166153
Date Posted: 19 February 2018
This document has been peer reviewed.