Publications

Educators

August 2007
Article

Exploiting Disruption to Jumpstart Innovation

By: Lynda M. Applegate

Keywords: Disruption; Innovation and Invention

December 2006
Article

Disruptive Innovation for Social Change

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Heiner Baumann, Rudy Ruggles and Thomas M. Sadtler

Keywords: Disruption; Innovation and Invention; Change; Society

September – October 2000
Article

Will Disruptive Innovations Cure Health Care?

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Richard M.J. Bohmer and John Kenagy

Keywords: Disruption; Innovation and Invention; Health; Health Industry

13 Oct 2022
Other Presentation

4 Business Ideas That Changed the World: Disruptive Innovation

By: Amy Bernstein, Rita McGrath, Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Derek van Bever

A roundtable conversation takes stock of Clayton Christensen’s influential theory. This first in a series of roundtable conversations assessing the origins and impact of four breakthrough ideas.

In the 1980s, Clayton Christensen cofounded a startup that... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation

09 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

Six Keys to Building New Markets by Unleashing Disruptive Innovation

managers make the right decisions to successfully build new-growth businesses. 1. Disruptive innovations spur growth. Companies have two basic options when they seek to build new-growth businesses. They can... View Details

Keywords: by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor & Scott D. Anthony

2008
Book

Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Michael B. Horn and Curtis W. Johnson

According to recent studies in neuroscience, the way we learn doesn't always match up with the way we are taught. If we hope to stay competitive—academically, economically, and technologically—we need to rethink our understanding of intelligence, reevaluate our... View Details

Keywords: Learning; Teaching; Disruptive Innovation; Competitive Advantage; Technology Adoption

2011
Book

The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators

By: Jeffrey H. Dyer, Hal B. Gregersen and Clayton M. Christensen

Some people are just natural innovators, right? With no apparent effort, they discover ideas for new products, services, and entire businesses. It may look like innovators are born, not made. But according to Jeffrey Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clay Christensen anyone can... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Disruptive Innovation; Competitive Advantage

December 2015
Article

What Is Disruptive Innovation?

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Michael Raynor and Rory McDonald

For the past 20 years, the theory of disruptive innovation has been enormously influential in business circles and a powerful tool for predicting which industry entrants will succeed. Unfortunately, the theory has also been widely misunderstood, and the "disruptive"... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Theory

November 2018
Article

Disruptive Innovation: An Intellectual History and Directions for Future Research

By: Clayton M. Christensen, Rory McDonald, Elizabeth J. Altman and Jonathan E. Palmer

The concept of disruptive innovation has gained considerable currency among practitioners despite widespread misunderstanding of its core principles. Similarly, foundational research on disruption has elicited frequent citation and vibrant debate in academic circles,... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Metrics; Systemic Industries; Technology Trajectories; Disruptive Innovation; Theory; History; Competitive Strategy; Research

July 2020
Case

Kathy Fish at Procter & Gamble: Navigating Industry Disruption by Disrupting from Within

By: Emily Truelove, Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards

When Kathy Fish, Procter & Gamble’s Chief Research, Development & Innovation Officer, and a 40-year company veteran, stepped into her role in 2014, she was concerned that the world’s leading consumer packaged goods company had lost its capability to produce a steady... View Details

Keywords: Female Protagonist; Organizational Change; Organizational Behavior; Culture Change; Digital; Innovation; Lean Startup; Experimentation; Metrics; Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG); Leadership; Leading Change; Change Management; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Disruption; Innovation and Invention; Digital Transformation

Educators

September 2008
Article

Let Disruption Fix Education

By: Henry Eyring and Renee Hopkins Callahan

Eyring and Hopkins Callahan apply Clayton Christensen's theory of Disruptive Innovation to Higher Education. The Spellings' Commission's 2006 report cited rising costs, lack of access, and a rift between output and the average stakeholder's needs in U.S. Higher... View Details

Keywords: Education; Disruptive Innovation; Higher Education; Education Industry

November 2014 (Revised March 2015)
Case

Disrupting the Meat Industry: Tissue Culture Beef

By: Jose B. Alvarez and Matthew G. Preble

Dr. Mark Post and his team at Maastricht University were perfecting their tissue culture beef product—made entirely from muscle grown in his lab—to give it the same taste, texture and appearance of a traditional beef hamburger. A previous iteration of this product had... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Beef Production; Environmental Impacts Of Food Production; Agribusiness; Animal-Based Agribusiness; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation and Invention; Environmental Sustainability; Food; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Netherlands; United States; United Kingdom

Educators

February 2023
Article

Disruption and Credit Markets

By: Bo Becker and Victoria Ivashina

We show that over the past half century innovative disruptions were central to understanding corporate defaults. In a given year, industries experiencing abnormally high VC or IPO activity subsequently see higher default rates, higher segment exits by conglomerates,... View Details

Keywords: Default; Corporate Bonds; Disruption; Corporate Finance; Bonds

2010
Article

We Cannot Go On: Disruptive Innovation and the First World War Royal Navy

By: Gautam Mukunda

Insights from Disruptive Innovation theory (DI) are often used in the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of national security policy. DI explains why successful companies are sometimes defeated by new competitors with relatively unsophisticated products.... View Details

Keywords: Technology; History; National Security; Framework; Adaptation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Technological Innovation; Machinery and Machining; Disruptive Innovation; Theory; Developing Countries and Economies; Technology Industry