The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

Published in 1997 by American author Clayton M. Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail is a business management book that views market dynamics from the perspective of technological innovation. It is considered a seminal text on innovation management and received the Global Business Book Award for the Best Business Book of 1997.

Christensen proposes that well-managed firms fail when good management practices rub against complex market conditions, hindering them from leveraging innovations that redefine the standards of performance. Based on research that Christensen conducted as a doctoral student at Harvard Business School, as well as continued research that he performed as a full professor at Harvard University, the book offers strategies for overcoming these obstacles, contextualizing them for new firms and market leaders alike. Underlying these discussions are critical ideas on underserved markets, agile capabilities, and the dynamics of opportunity and risk.

This study guide refers to the 2016 paperback edition published by Harvard Business Review Press.

Summary

The Innovator’s Dilemma is anchored around two research topics: explaining the reasons for corporate failure and predicting innovation success. In the Introduction, Christensen observes that conventional business practices actually contributed to corporate failure because the managers implementing them could not contextualize innovations in the wider business landscape.