Responses of incumbent firms in the face of disruptive strategic innovations

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Die folgende Arbeit entstand in den Jahren 2005 bis 2007 am Lehrstuhl für Unternehmensführung der Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, aus einer Leidenschaft heraus, strategische Innovationen und das vielzitierte "Innovator's Dilemma" etablierter Unternehmen besser zu verstehen. Die aktuelle, sogenannte "no-frills" Entwicklung in der Mobilfunkbranche bot hierfür ein ideales Forschungsfeld. - "One theme that consistently weaves its way through strategic management and innovation literature is how previously successful market leaders fail to adequately respond to discontinuous or disruptive technological innovations. Some researchers point out that incumbents face similar response problems when it comes to disruptive strategic innovations, i.e., innovations that fundamentally change and conflict with the way these players have competed in the industry for years. However, there is a dearth of in-depth understanding with regard to how incumbents respond to these innovations and why they are facing problems. Embarking from this starting point, this book explores how and why incumbents respond to disruptive strategic innovations based on the phenomenon of "no-frills" business models in the European mobile tele-communications industry. Comprehensive, longitudinal case studies conducted with four established European mobile network operators serve as the basis to investigate and explain what motivates incumbents to respond, which response strategies they choose, and how they structurally implement their response strategy. Drawing on various research streams, the author explains the empirical evidence and distills findings into a number of hypotheses that should provide other researchers with a solid platform to further advance theory in this field.Markus Schöberl's dissertation is particularly suited for scholars studying strategic management and discontinuous innovation phenomena, but also for managers of incumbent firms facing decisions on how to respond to disruptive strategic innovations. "