The creative destruction of existing industries as a consequence of discontinuous technological change is a central theme in the literature on industrial innovation and technological development. Established competence-based and market-based explanations of this phenomenon argue that incumbents are seriously challenged only by ‘competence-destroying’ or ‘disruptive’ innovations, which make their existing knowledge base or business models obsolete and leave them vulnerable to attacks from new entrants. This paper challenges these arguments. With detailed empirical analyses of the automotive and gas turbine industries, we demonstrate that these explanations overestimate the ability of new entrants to destroy and disrupt established industries and underestimate the capacity of incumbents to perceive the potential of new technologies and integrate them with existing capabilities. Moreover, we show how intense competition in the wake of technological discontinuities, driven entirely by incumbents, may instead result in late industry shakeouts. We develop and extend the notion of ‘creative accumulation’ as a way of conceptualizing the innovating capacity of the incumbents that appear to master such turbulence. Specifically, we argue that creative accumulation requires firms to handle a triple challenge of simultaneously (a) fine-tuning and evolving existing technologies at a rapid pace, (b) acquiring and developing new technologies and resources and (c) integrating novel and existing knowledge into superior products and solutions. / Knowledge Integration and Innovation in Transnational Enterprise

Anno 2013 Europe resides in a severe economic crisis that has been lasting for five years. Companies are struggling to deal with the influences of this crisis and require strategic insights to maintain performance. According to theory entrepreneurship and innovation are central mechanisms in the creation of wealth in the capitalist system and an entrepreneurial strategy could provide relatively much benefit in a crisis period. This study focuses on the central question:  How does an entrepreneurial orientation affect the performance of companies in the economic crisis? To answer this question a variety of theories on entrepreneurship, innovation and the creation of wealth in capitalism were examined. On many occasions quantitative research has been performed to measure the relationship between an entrepreneurial orientation and performance. This study provides an extra dimension by using archival financial data of companies during and before the crisis to draw comparisons and examine developments in performance in relation to an entrepreneurial orientation. Data on the entrepreneurial orientation was collected with an online survey which was sent to companies. The results of the survey indicated the degree of entrepreneurial orientation of the companies in separate categories; innovativeness, proactiveness and risk taking. The results were linked to their financial performance which was obtained from a database. Comparisons between the performance before and during the crisis in relation to the scores on entrepreneurship were made, and the development of their financial performance since the crisis was examined. The results of this study indicate that an entrepreneurial orientation has a relatively more positive influence on performance during the crisis. However the relationship between an entrepreneurial orientation and performance is highly dependent on the company and type of industry so no unilateral positive correlations with performance were found. For a set of industrial, manufacturing, chemical and service companies the development of the financial performance since the crisis is highly positively correlated with innovativeness and proactiveness. For a set of other company types including foundations, (public) utility companies, (public) real estate companies, construction companies, trade and investment firms no correlations were found. The findings in this study indicate that depending on the type of company and industry, an entrepreneurial orientation can have a strong positive effect on the development of financial performance in the crisis.

This study assesses the relationship between planning and creative destruction in the village of Creemore, Ontario. The study has four objectives. The first is to describe the evolution of tourism in Creemore by tracking change in three variables: investment, visitor numbers and resident attitudes. Second, is to describe past and present tourism planning in the village. Third, is to assess Creemore’s position in the model of creative destruction, based on information presented in objectives one and two. The final objective is to provide recommendations for Creemore’s future based on information gained from the other objectives. To investigate the first objective, entrepreneurial investment was provided by secondary sources, including the Creemore Business Improvement Association (BIA). Visitor numbers were obtained from content analyses of copies of the local newspaper and from information provided by the Creemore Springs Brewery. Resident attitudes were gleaned from a survey completed by 126 residents of Creemore. To meet the second objective, a content analysis was completed on historic issues of the local newspaper and six key informant interviews were conducted. Based on the information provided from the first two objectives, it is concluded that Creemore is in the second stage of Mitchell’s (1998) model of creative destruction, Advanced Commodification. This conclusion is drawn since visitor numbers and investment levels are still low and resident attitudes are generally positive towards tourism. It is also concluded that tourism planning plays a large role in creative destruction, as it can speed up, or slow down, the process, depending on the types of planning that are implemented. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that a tourism plan be developed to help mitigate possible future negative impacts of tourism, and to ensure the village does not evolve any further along the path of creative destruction.

The intent of this study is to determine if the process of creative destruction is underway in a rural community located in Newfoundland and Labrador and to identify why this development sequence has or has not occurred. Three objectives underlie this study. The first is to determine at what stage Ferryland is situated in the Model of Creative Destruction. The second is to explain the community’s current stage in the model. The third objective is to provide recommendations for this community on its future development potential. These objectives were fulfilled through data collection that included: participant observation, content analysis of newspapers, and a review of relevant documents, key informant interviews, and resident and visitor surveys. This mixed method study concluded that the community of Ferryland is in the stage of advanced commodification in Mitchell’s (2009) Model of Creative Destruction. Three reasons are identified for its current state. First, the community lacks a tourism champion. Secondly, human capital shortage in Ferryland has created a lack of workers. Lastly, the actions of local stakeholders are not driven solely by the motivations outlined by Mitchell (2009). They are also underlain by the desire for pleasure; a motivation that does not appear to have encouraged fast-paced development. Furthermore, Ferryland is a community on a much smaller scale, which may have lessened perceived impacts and scale of development. Based on these conclusions, it is recommended that the Ferryland Tourism Committee creates a long-term plan for tourism that incorporates opinions of local residents.

This study assesses the relationship between planning and creative destruction in the village of Creemore, Ontario. The study has four objectives. The first is to describe the evolution of tourism in Creemore by tracking change in three variables: investment, visitor numbers and resident attitudes. Second, is to describe past and present tourism planning in the village. Third, is to assess Creemore’s position in the model of creative destruction, based on information presented in objectives one and two. The final objective is to provide recommendations for Creemore’s future based on information gained from the other objectives. To investigate the first objective, entrepreneurial investment was provided by secondary sources, including the Creemore Business Improvement Association (BIA). Visitor numbers were obtained from content analyses of copies of the local newspaper and from information provided by the Creemore Springs Brewery. Resident attitudes were gleaned from a survey completed by 126 residents of Creemore. To meet the second objective, a content analysis was completed on historic issues of the local newspaper and six key informant interviews were conducted. Based on the information provided from the first two objectives, it is concluded that Creemore is in the second stage of Mitchell’s (1998) model of creative destruction, Advanced Commodification. This conclusion is drawn since visitor numbers and investment levels are still low and resident attitudes are generally positive towards tourism. It is also concluded that tourism planning plays a large role in creative destruction, as it can speed up, or slow down, the process, depending on the types of planning that are implemented. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that a tourism plan be developed to help mitigate possible future negative impacts of tourism, and to ensure the village does not evolve any further along the path of creative destruction.

The intent of this study is to determine if the process of creative destruction is underway in a rural community located in Newfoundland and Labrador and to identify why this development sequence has or has not occurred. Three objectives underlie this study. The first is to determine at what stage Ferryland is situated in the Model of Creative Destruction. The second is to explain the community’s current stage in the model. The third objective is to provide recommendations for this community on its future development potential. These objectives were fulfilled through data collection that included: participant observation, content analysis of newspapers, and a review of relevant documents, key informant interviews, and resident and visitor surveys. This mixed method study concluded that the community of Ferryland is in the stage of advanced commodification in Mitchell’s (2009) Model of Creative Destruction. Three reasons are identified for its current state. First, the community lacks a tourism champion. Secondly, human capital shortage in Ferryland has created a lack of workers. Lastly, the actions of local stakeholders are not driven solely by the motivations outlined by Mitchell (2009). They are also underlain by the desire for pleasure; a motivation that does not appear to have encouraged fast-paced development. Furthermore, Ferryland is a community on a much smaller scale, which may have lessened perceived impacts and scale of development. Based on these conclusions, it is recommended that the Ferryland Tourism Committee creates a long-term plan for tourism that incorporates opinions of local residents.

By using statistical methods and methods of macroeconomic analysis it has been proved that Schumpeter's theory of the creative destruction works not only as a theoretical model but it holds true even in real economics. With these methods it has been proved that during the currency and economic crisis in the 1997 and following the creative destruction was present in Czech economy and that it has changed the economy to be more effective and more productive than it was before which has helped to reach steeper growth rate afterwards. This means that the crisis through the creative destruction in fact has improved a condition of the whole Czech economy. Such an improvement has been also proved by an international comparison with the economy of the Slovak republic where the creative destruction didn't act so much due to an absence of economic crisis.

L’écriture de Marguerite Duras est foncièrement mythique ; son imaginaire puise dans les schémas les plus fondamentaux et les plus primitifs de la psyché humaine, puis les redispose dans l’athanor créatif intérieur, engendrant des œuvres protéiformes, à la fois extrêmement novatrices et nourries d’images archaïques fidèlement reprises ou revisitées, voire déformées ou renversées totalement. A la croisée de l’exégèse littéraire et phénoménologique (à l’image de l’herméneutique de Gaston Bachelard), de l’anthropologie (les travaux de Mircea Eliade), de la mythodologie développée par Gilbert Durand et de la psychologie des profondeurs (Carl Gustav Jung et Marie-Louise von Franz), nous proposons une étude précise et la plus complète possible des archétypes qui constellent cet imaginaire ainsi que de leur résonnance symbolique dans les textes ou les films durassiens. Cette analyse nous permettra de présenter une lecture nouvelle de l’univers scriptural, avec des outils efficaces et efficients. Il s’agira de repérer au fil des livres les symboles, de les confronter au plus grand nombre d’occurrences dans les pensées, les rites et les récits de toute culture, afin de laisser affleurer leur spécificité dans les œuvres. Si la quête de Marguerite Duras peut être assimilée à une tentative désespérée d’unir les contraires et résorber tout antagonisme, nous verrons que le style et l’univers se tournent progressivement vers un appel radical à la destruction absolue, qui modifie profondément la vision interne et la forme de l’écrit. Par l’analyse minutieuse des images dans un double corpus (le cycle indien puis la trilogie politique), nous souhaitons laisser remonter ces images fondatrices, observer leur signification tout en repérant leurs modifications essentielles au long de la production littéraire, théâtrale et cinématographique de l’artiste. / Marguerite Duras’s writing is deeply mythical; her imaginary world is rooted in the most fundamental and primitive patterns of the human psyche. She reorganizes it in the inner crucible of her creation, thus creating multifaceted works, simultaneously extremely innovative and filled with archaic images that the author uses faithfully, rewrites, twists or completely flips over. In between literary and phenomenological exegesis (like Gaston Bachelard’s hermeneutics), anthropology (Mircea Eliade’s works), Gilbert Durand’s mythodology and Carl Gustav Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz’s depth psychology, we offer a precise study, as thorough as possible, of the archetypes scattered throughout Marguerite Duras’s imaginary world as well as their symbolical echo in her texts and filmography.This analysis will enable us to present a new interpretation of her writing with efficient and effective tools. Book after book, we will spot the symbols and confront them with as many cultural rituals, thoughts and tales as possible in order to grasp their meaning in each of her works. If Marguerite Duras’s quest can be considered as a desperate attempt to bring together opposites and absorb any antagonisms, her style and her artistic world gradually turn to a radical call for complete destruction that deeply changes the inner vision and the nature of her writing. Through the careful analysis of the images in a double corpus (the Indian cycle then the political trilogy), we wish to let these founding images reach the surface, examine their meaning while underlining their crucial modifications during the author’s production in literature, theatre and cinema.

In recent years, the financial and economic decisions have changed which has created and utilized new methods and techniques that have led to new and different products, processes, and services. However, the changing methods and techniques have led to the movement of digital technology and enabling financial services within the financial industry. The changes have resulted in the phenomenon of FinTech that has derived from financial services. In order for companies to be competitive in the industry and create value for their customers, they need to use a business model as a conceptual tool to help improve their performance. High dynamics in technological solutions within the financial industry provides the base for business model innovation. Whilst there is little empirical insight about business model and business model innovation within the qualitative field, this study aims to explore how FinTech companies are developing their business models to enable business model innovation in Sweden, as well as what is influencing business model innovation. An explorative study with semi-structured interviews was conducted to explore how FinTech companies’ business models are built. The empirical findings were supplemented with data from the company’s websites and financial reports. This study’s findings show four key factors within the FinTech companies' business models: Technological innovations, digitization, value propositions, and human resources. All companies have developed innovative technology and software solutions and created new technical systems. Hence, all companies are innovative by creating new processes and methods through their technical development and resulting in different innovations such as API-systems and self-built algorithms. Further, business model innovation within this study has been influenced and driven by exceptional events as the market changes and problems occur within the company that forces innovations to be created for companies to overcome these obstacles. In addition, market pressure has influenced business model innovations by e.g. competitors and customers changing the market demand and making the companies adjust continuously.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the potential impact of High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) innovations on the power industry. A short historical review is provided on the so-called ‘War of the Currents’, which has placed alternating current (AC) as the dominant platform for power transmission. The revival of DC in high voltage transmission is here examined as a reverse salient, as various indicators show that the role of HVDC in the power industry seems to be constantly growing. In this thesis the potential of HVDC to drive industrial change is put to question, and an effort is made to define that change; questions are being addressed such as ‘how likely is HVDC to gain a more important role in power transmission, and what may that role be?’ and ‘how may the power market look like after a wider implementation of HVDC in power systems?’. The competition between ABB and Siemens (and at a lower level Alstom), market leaders in HVDC technologies, is analyzed with specific regard to the pursuit of inventing a HVDC circuit breaker; a technological leap that has been considered necessary for overcoming a number of obstacles to creating a DC grid. As of November 2012, ABB has developed the world’s first HVDC circuit breaker, acknowledged as a technological breakthrough. An attempt is being made to evaluate the impact of this innovation in terms of enhancing ABB’s entrepreneurial activity and granting the company with a competitive edge. Furthermore, the vision of developing DC grids – and thus R&D investments for the invention of a HVDC circuit breaker – is approached as a case of climate change being a main driving force for innovation, since this novel invention promises to make easier the integration of more renewable energy sources in power systems. This co-evolution of environment policy and innovation strategy is examined under the scope of Erik Dahmén’s theory of development blocks. Finally, ABB’s recent innovation is considered a disturbance in the system capable of bringing implications on the market that are here interpreted as a case of creative destruction, based upon Schumpeter’s terminology. In the conclusion section possible threats for Siemens and Alstom are also realized, and the need for them is questioned to go through changes in order to remain competitive, a situation that is here regarded as a case of transformation pressure.