Digital Disruptive Innovation

There is no doubt that digital technologies have the potential for disruptive innovation in a wide range of sectors, both in manufacturing and services, and the commercial and social domains. However, popular commentaries on the potential of digital innovation to disrupt have suffered from two extreme positions: either, simplistic technological determinism, often promoted by technology vendors, claiming that the impending widespread automation of products and services will provide step-changes in productivity and new products and services; or alternatively, very high-level broad discussions of business model innovation in traditional sectors, private and public. However, the impacts will not be universal, and the outcomes will be highly-differentiated. More fundamentally, neither a narrow technological perspective or broad business view adequately captures the appropriate level of granularity necessary to understand the potential and challenges presented by digital innovation. In this book, Digital Disruptive Innovation, we apply innovation concepts, models and research to provide greater insights into strategies for, and management of, digital innovation.

Joe Tidd is a physicist with subsequent degrees in technology policy and business administration. He is Professor of Technology and Innovation Management at Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex; Visiting Professor at University College London; and former Professor of Cass Business School, Copenhagen Business School, and Rotterdam School of Management. He is former Deputy Director of SPRU and Head of the Innovation Group, and Director of the Executive MBA Program at Imperial College. He has worked as a policy adviser to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). He was a researcher for the 5-y International Motor Vehicle Program of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and has worked on technology and innovation management projects for consultants Arthur D Little, CAP Gemini, and McKinsey, and numerous technology-based firms. He has written nine books and 90 papers on the management of technology and innovation, with more than 20,000 research citations.