Question

4. Under Clayton Christensen's theory of disruptive innovation, sustaining innovation will always entail an incumbent continuing to apply the core design concepts that underlie their existing product architecture. True or False? Explain why? (Word Count: 150)

Answer 1

• Answer:- TRUE​​​​​​.
• Explanation :-
• A sustaining innovation improves existing products. It does not create new markets or value markets, but develops existing ones with better value, allowing companies to compete against each other’s sustaining improvements.
• A sustaining innovation targets demanding, high-end customers with better performance than what was previously available. Some sustaining innovations are the incremental year-by-year improvements that all good companies grind out. Other sustaining innovations are breakthrough, leap frog-beyond-the-competition products. It doesn’t matter how technologically difficult the innovation is, however: The established competitors almost always win the battles of sustaining technology. Because this strategy entails making a better product that they can sell for higher profit margins to their best customers, the established competitors have powerful motivations to fight sustaining battles. And they have the resources to win.
• An example of sustaining innovation is Pfizer, the world’s biggest pharmaceutical company by revenues. Hoque notes the company’s ongoing success with blockbuster medicines and vaccines with household names, such as Zithromax, Lipitor and Viagra. The company was founded in 1849 as a manufacturer of fine chemicals, and a year later, it discovered Terramycin (oxytetracylcine), launching the company’s successful and ongoing expansion into a research-based pharmaceutical company. It augmented its research by building its brands, pipeline and profile through major acquisitions.