Disruptive Technology

Overview of the topic
While technology foresight allows incumbents to remain abreast of evolving business
models, most resist innovations and prefer protecting or maintaining their conventional business
models. Sometimes the resistance succeeds, but newcomers, as demonstrated by companies like
Uber and Airbnb, end up using their innovative technologies to disrupt industries. Against this
backdrop, disruptive technology is best treated as an innovation with a strategic value to
customers and new market entrants to the detriment of incumbents (Christensen et al., 2016).
However, some disruptive technologies face customer resistance, and there is no guarantee they
will succeed. Disruptive innovation might be in the form of incremental innovations that focus
on gaining a low-end foothold by improving existing products or services. Alternatively, they
might be new-market footholds that create new markets by disrupting market or business norms
(Christensen et al., 2016). Therefore, understanding disruptive technologies is crucial because it
allows firms to weather disruption and remain competitive by changing their business models or
innovating their products and services.
Brief history
The concept of disruption provides a framework for thinking about how innovation can
create new business models and affect market competitiveness. Many business leaders have
misunderstood the critical concepts of disruptive technology, and thus they have used it in
inappropriate ways. Over the years, numerous types of disruptive technology have emerged,
including Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is used for various purposes in the business world
(Christensen et al., 2016). AI helps in streamlining business operations, and this significantly
improves business performance as seen in Netflix company. Yet, some companies have resisted

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digital transformation or integration of AI in their operations, thus missing out on the efficacy
associated with advanced capabilities like AI or machine learning.
Similarities in the interests
A critical examination of my interests and the issues discussed in the media piece
indicates that they both talk about contemporary issues that affect business today. It is vital to
acknowledge that businesses face numerous issues, especially technology-related ones. With
advancing technology, businesses should implement strategies that promote technology in
business operations. Additionally, my interest is to study the business problems brought about by
technology, and this is the same case with issues addressed in the media piece. Notably,
disruptive technology has resulted in numerous business problems, including incurring high
expenditures to use technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, which helps streamline business
activities.
Business-related problems of the topic
Disruptive technologies are associated with numerous problems which affect business
operations. One of the problems is adaptability, which Netflix faces since disruptive innovations
often take time to be proved in challenging market conditions. It is vital to acknowledge that
disruptive technologies must be adaptive to market conditions to achieve their goals. Most
businesses incur high expenditures to make customers believe in the new products and services
(Gawanmeh & Al-Karaki, 2021). The expenditures are incurred during marketing activities,
which help create awareness of the new products and services.
Additionally, disruptive technology results in augmented competition since new ideas
often disrupt existing businesses (Gawanmeh & Al-Karaki, 2021). Notably, new business ideas
put much pressure on existing businesses because they have to use new strategies to improve

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their products to match the new and sophisticated products in the market. In some cases,
disruptive technologies have made established companies, such as Netflix to lobby and demand
to apply existing policies for the new entrants into the market to reduce their impact on existing
businesses and gain a competitive advantage.
Type of data for research
Businesses have a responsibility to research the adaptability of disruptive technology. In
the research, Netflix will likely collect qualitative data to seek customers’ opinions about the
new products and services. Notably, the data can be collected through interviews and surveys,
which are the most common techniques for collecting qualitative data.

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References

Christensen, C. M., McDonald, R., Altman, E. J., & Palmer, J. (2016). Disruptive innovation:
Intellectual history and future paths (pp. 1-52). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business
School.
Gawanmeh, A., & Al-Karaki, J. N. (2021). Disruptive technologies for disruptive innovations:
Challenges and opportunities. In ITNG 2021 18th International Conference on
Information Technology-New Generations (pp. 427-434). Springer, Cham.