The evolution of technology has led to a need for business leaders to embrace disruptive technology for the purpose of capturing new markets and remaining competitive. Multiple challenges have been faced by business leaders in the processes of integrating and sustaining disruptive innovations, resulting in the failure to achieve expected efficiency and profitability. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies used by business leaders to integrate and sustain disruptive innovations. The conceptual frameworks were Roger's diffusion of innovation theory and Christensen's disruptive innovation theory. Semistructured interviews were administered to 10 business leaders and employees from institutions of higher learning in the Northeastern region of the United States. The participants were selected using a purposive nonrandom sampling technique. The selection criteria included organizational leaders, technology professionals, training and development professionals, and organizational end-users. Three themes and several subthemes were identified. The strategies for integrating and sustaining disruptive innovations include training, changeover mechanisms, and the use of critical resources. The procedural and structural factors in processes to integrate and sustain disruptive innovations include identifying critical success factors, ascertaining benchmarks, determining levels of support and effectiveness. Obstacles faced during the processes of integrating and sustaining disruptive innovations were categorized into human, technology, changeover, and external issues. Social change may be realized through the improved success rates of small business leaders implementing disruptive innovations by increasing meaningful employment and enhancing livelihoods.

With the rise of digital technologies, consumers can stream music content, which has made it more difficult for music companies to be profitable. Small business owners in the music recording industry in the West Indies have found this trend particularly challenging, affecting their profitability. This multiple case study explored the adoption of disruptive technologies by small business owners in the music recording industry to increase profitability. The research population included 5 small business owners in the music recording industry in the West Indies who successfully adapted to the changes in the industry's business model and whose businesses are profitable. Christensen's theory of disruptive innovation served as the conceptual framework for this study. Data from face-to-face, semistructured, in-depth interviews, observations, and analysis of internal company documents were collected and triangulated. Within-case analysis was used to understand the general meaning of the participants' responses. Each case was described and themes were identified. Cross-case analysis was used to compare the 5 case descriptions and identify 5 cross-cutting themes. These 5 themes included focus on live performances, focus on marketing and building a brand, adopt innovations in all functions of the business, diversify income streams, and adopt vertical integration strategies. The implications for positive social change include the potential to increase the profitability of small businesses in the recording industry in the West Indies by sharing the strategies emerging from the study. Profitable businesses can lead to improved livelihoods of the small business owners and their families.

Employees can be resistant to work-based change, specifically when the change is due to disruptive or new technology. The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of 20 Swiss-based educational employees adapting to online technologies introduced in their workplaces. Disruptive innovation theory provided the conceptual framework for the study. Data were collected using semistructured interviews with 20 purposely selected participants from 3 Swiss-based higher education campuses. The modified Van Kaam method was used to organize and analyze the data. Four themes from participants' responses were identified: educational employees are not resistant to technology-based change, educational employees can move forward and become excited even when frustrated, educational managers should develop commitment and a project-based focus to reduce additional expenditure of time and effort, and continued experience and personal development can enable technology use and reduce resistance. Findings from the study may be used to reduce employees' resistance to technological-based change in higher education. The successful development and use of online education tools by educators provides society with choices, mobility, flexibility, and a personalized approach to learning.

The problem that most, if not all, large companies deal with in one way or another, is to stay relevant and competitive as their industry evolves. They need to keep improving their current services or products but still need to keep their eyes open for disruption. This requires them to make long-term investments in research and development, which does not always result in a quick return. To stay relevant, corporations need to increase corporate innovation. Research on collaboration between startups and corporations has grown substantially in recent years, but there is a gap in academic literature focusing on the barriers of these collaborations. This qualitative study focuses on what perspective Icelandic corporate managers have towards collaborating with startups as part of their corporate innovation. To accomplish that, eight semi- structured interviews with top-level managers from large corporations were conducted. It was clear that all interviewees were very positive about collaborating with startups even though most of them had little or no experience from doing so themselves. Icelandic companies seem to be reluctant to invest the required time and resources it takes for these collaborations to be successful because of the lack of successful examples in Iceland so far. This research only looked at the barriers and benefits from the perspective of top-level managers in large corporations but future research could include the perspective of startups as well.

<p>Over the course of history, innovation has been the forefront of industrial change. New innovations have continuously surpassed old solutions, which have contributed to the trajectory of mankind. In today’s market IT has an increasingly important role. Innovation within IT is characterised by high degrees of visionary thinking and optimism towards the success of the venture. This has contributed to bubble effects emerging in the economy of a highly speculative nature.</p><p>A central issue lies in the complexity of evaluating innovation and especially more radical and visionary ones. In general terms of evaluation, innovations are evaluated in two main phases: internally and externally. For visionary innovations it is not evident how and on what grounds the innovation should be evaluated both internally in terms of feasibility and externally in terms of market response. In that aspect there is a gap in evaluation and especially <em>how </em>visionary innovation can be evaluated. The aim of the research is to investigate the phenomenon of visionary innovation and contribute with knowledge about the characteristics that influence growth and adoption.</p><p>The research is based upon a two-step qualitative investigation. Firstly the research is imed at constructing a framework for evaluating the innovation and thereafter objectifying the characteristics on case studies within the IT sector.</p><p>The research has found three major areas for evaluation: (1) <em>the eco-system, </em>(2) <em>the  ustomer </em><em>behaviour </em>and (3) <em>the target market</em>. The eco-system is focused towards the ompetitive environment, the technology and the infrastructure. The customer behaviour  ddresses customers’ existing behaviours, their needs and demands and the surplus value  he new offering brings. In terms of the customer behaviour the switching costs and benefits  of other alternatives is also important to consider. Finally, the target market  onsists of the market characteristics, the customer segmentation and the overall  ttractiveness of the market. Based on the characteristics of these factors and the market  nd industry, constraints and drivers can be identified to either support or contradicts the  peed of adoption of new solutions.</p><p>The main findings of the report are that growth is dependent on and influenced by positive and negative drivers. The three elements the drivers are thus connected and correlating, in the sense that the drivers can have different levels of severity. For instance, a negative driver that is negatively correlated with another element has a high level of severity related to growth.</p>

This thesis investigates the performance of business model innovation (BMI) by incumbent power utility and clean-tech start-up firms influenced by the German Energiewende. It emphasises the factors that impact BMI from a managers’ perspective, examines success factors for managers to overcome BMI challenges, and addresses contingencies to perform BMI in a more structured way. The research is driven by the German Energiewende. It has been chosen as Germany is considered one of the world’s leading markets for renewable energies and a transformation of the power sector is currently underway. Therefore, established power utility firms face severe changes, which have the characteristics of a potential disruption to their business model (BM). At the same time, new players are challenging these incumbents with new BMs. The research is underpinned by the extant literature on BMs and BMI. The research approach is based on two case studies; the incumbent power utility and the clean-tech start-up sector. The qualitative study comprises of 24 semi-structured interviews conducted with top tier managers, from 18 firms, responsible for BMI within these firms. Key findings: This study extends our knowledge of BMI in both a start-up and an incumbent environment that is influenced by various contingent events. It portrays barriers to BMI and depicts critical success factors for BMI that point out solutions on how to overcome these barriers. It provides a structured BMI framework for established firms and illustrates future BM archetypes in this sector. It clearly documents the German Energiewende is regarded as a disruptive threat from the perspective of incumbent power utility managers. The theoretical contribution of this thesis is a process framework including all identified drivers and challenges for BMI in both established and start-up firms. Contributions to practice include critical success factors for BMI, recommendations to overcome barriers to BMI and future BM archetypes within the newly evolving Energiewende industry based on sustainable technologies.

Although the Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ) has been widely accepted by the HRD community, it has not been tested in a startup context for reliability. The purpose of the current study is to explore if the DLOQ is a reliable instrument for startups to help them be more successful. The current study seeks to address some of the questions, which have been posed by previous researchers. The study utilizes a mixed-method design applying Cronbach alpha values to check the reliability of the instrument in a startup learning environment, with more than 600 participants and 42 startup businesses at a university in the Mountain West. The study uses objective financial measures for startup firms to explore the correlation between the seven dimensions of the DLOQ and startup companies at the university. Cronbach alphas for the instrument measured at the .80 level or higher. Four of the dimensions were found to be statistically significant resulting in a model that accounted for 30% of the variance in predicted Operating Income (p<.004) and 29% of the variances in predicted Net Income (p<.003). The study also uses qualitative analysis to explore what activities relate to the seven dimensions of the DLOQ, and if those activities would be considered complex and disruptive. Thirteen activity clusters were identified and found to be relevant to startups and the seven dimensions of the DLOQ.

Disruptive innovation pertains to a process wherein a modest idea can grow and transform the entire landscape among established companies within the same industry. While this type of innovation has the potential to revolutionize markets and industries, it also presents challenges, particularly in securing funding. Financing disruptive companies can be a difficult endeavor as they may be challenging to comprehend and assess. Traditional financiers may not recognize the potential in these ideas and may be reluctant to risk their resources on what may appear to be uncertain ventures. Thus, the question arises whether the financing process for entrepreneurs engaging in disruptive innovation differs from that of other entrepreneurs. The purpose of this study is to observe the factors that influence disruptive entrepreneurship and how they are reflected in the financing process. Empirical findings were analyzed alongside theoretical findings. The results indicated that external financing capable of primarily providing knowledge was valued more highly than external financing that could only offer capital. / Disruptiv innovation handlar om en process där en liten idé kan växa och förändra hela spelplanen bland etablerade företag inom samma bransch. Denna typ av innovation har potentialen att revolutionera marknader och industrier. Men med disruptiv innovation kan det också uppstå utmaningar, särskilt när det gäller att hitta finansiering. Att finansiera disruptiva företag kan vara en svår uppgift eftersom de kan vara svåra att förstå och värdera. Traditionella finansiärer kanske inte inser potentialen i dessa idéer och kan vara ovilliga att riskera sina pengar på vad som kan verka vara osäkra satsningar. Det kan således ifrågasättas huruvida finansieringsprocessen för entreprenörer som ägnar sig åt disruptiv innovation skiljer sig från andra entreprenörer. Syftet i denna studie är att se vad som har en inverkan på disruptivt entreprenörskap och hur det speglas i finansieringsprocessen. Empiriska fynd analyserades med teoretiska fynd och resultatet visade att extern finansiering som kunde bidra med främst kunskap värderas högre än extern finansiering som bara kunde erbjuda kapital.

本研究企圖從Rogers創新傳佈的觀點探討科技特質因子如何影響雜誌業採用新型態便利商店繳款單付費方式。研究採問卷調查法，有效問卷68份。統計分析結果發現：一、創新傳佈理論五項科技特質中相對利益、相容性、可觀察性因子與採用採用新型態便利商店繳款單付費方式之決策有關。二、決策階段之科技導入評估因子：選用程度、作業程度、補償程度與採用決策有關。三、科技特質因子與科技導入評估因子之間交互相關。四、不同雜誌組織對於便利商店付費方式有顯著不同差異。發行規模較小的公司(發行量低於一萬份或雜誌代理商)，反而願意投入掌握新市場。本研究建議未來可延伸以破壞性創新理論，繼續探討創新付費模式是否能使新進市場的媒介組織擁有優勢，對於未來數位內容、網路分類廣告等是否採用創新付費機制，都將具有啟發作用。 / The research uses Roger’s diffusion of innovation theory to explore how magazines adopt an alternative new payment method to sale magazines－using 7-11 chain stores barcode method. A total of 68 valid questionnaires were collected. The results support our hypotheses that the relationships exist between technology characteristics of the new payment method and the adoption; second, the organizational size and types of the magazine affect the adoption. The research suggests that future research consider using Christensen’s desruptive innovation theory to examine innovative payment models, especially in the area of digital contents and e- classified.

企業的持續成長是每一家企業所追求的目標之一，也是衡量企業營運績效之重要指標，當一個企業成長趨緩或開始衰退時，往往是企業遭遇困難的警訊。而企業能持續成長端賴競爭力之保有及持續提升，這在企業就必須具有企業競爭優勢策略，因而企業競爭優勢策略是提升企業經營績效的重要課題。 營運成長模式一般可分為內部成長與外部成長。內部成長是指經由公司內部新事業、新產品或新訂單與新客戶的增加使營業額成長；外部成長則是藉由外部策略聯盟、轉投資、購併等手段使公司能取得有利競爭優勢與地位或擴大營業規模。又因為藉由轉投資與購併經常能使企業之規模與競爭力獲得跳躍式成長，如美國通用電氣(General Electric)與思科(Cisco corp.)均為明顯而成功的案例，故在大部分企業經營時，其成為很多企業成長策略的主要選項。 然而，企業在選擇轉投資、策略聯盟或購併行為時，其策略與目標的訂定、購併與被購併企業之定位、整合；購併或轉投資的標的選擇與評估、計畫的規劃與執行等等，均影響外部成長之成敗，導致企業競爭力是否持續增進。 本研究針對垂直市場的產業內聯盟與轉投資為限制範圍，以聚焦於”垂直市場”產業內之轉投資有別於跨產業之投資行為，以”優勢競爭替代”之觀點來探討企業策略定位，以”組織變革”觀點來觀察購併與被購併或投資者與被投資者之定位策略與執行策略，以”累積長期競爭優勢”為標準來衡量與檢驗聯盟或轉投資之效益。 本研究針對研華股份有限公司轉投資艾訊股份有限公司之策略聯盟個案，以探索性研究方法依理論比較實務，研究其在策略聯盟之過程，探討此個案之策略與執行過程，期望能對研華與艾訊公司之策略作一研究與檢討並提出後續改進之建議。 本研究之歸納發現為： 一、 垂直市場競爭者之水平式策略聯盟或購併，如僅由發揮最大生產效率之綜效來考量，不易累積長久之競爭優勢。 二、 在垂直市場產業中，卓越的聯盟或購併之策略運用，在清楚的分析所處市場特性與公司定位以持續維持競爭優勢是策略思考的核心。 三、 破壞性創新思維運用在市場競爭策略上，市場在位者可提升維持性創新競爭力並同時可建立低階策略聯盟以形成阻止其他低階攻擊者障礙，足以保護現有市場在位領先者免於被競爭者侵蝕競爭力。形成結構上的長期競爭優勢。 四、 購併策略之執行，是否應將被併購企業併入，端賴兩方公司之策略定位。依據定位來檢視雙方之資源、流程與價值三個構面，當此三構面在雙方整合對整體策略有助益，則雙方應合併，反之則應維持獨立運作。 五、 雖然處於相同產業，但競爭之主要成功因素將因企業為維持性創新之市場在位者，或是防止低階、低價進攻者之阻攻者角色而有所改變；相對應的組織變革就應提出以確保策略之成功執行。 / The continuous revenue growth is one of the utmost goals that every enterprise seeks. It is also one of the key factors to measure the operation efficiency of an enterprise. It is an alarming signal that the enterprise is encountering serious challenges whenever the sales growth stays slow or encounters a recession. In order to keep the revenue grow consistently, an enterprise needs to sustain its competitiveness and keep its ascendancy as its cutting edge strategy. We can classify the growth engines into two categories: first, the internal growth engine which is contributed by new business, new products, and new orders; second, the external growth engine which is contributed by strategic alliances, M&A, and other investment opportunities. The enterprise usually gets a quantum jump on its business scale when a successful Merger & Acquisition is executed. The General Electric Co. and Cisco Co. cases are good examples of M&A. This probably explains why many companies place M&A and investment opportunity on high priority when setting growth strategies. However, when an enterprise adopts strategic alliance, M&A or diversified investment, its success depends heavily on its abilities of goal setting, positioning, targeting of Alliance Company, doing due-diligence, and solving culture conflict. This thesis investigates the strategic alliances and diversification investment between vertical market players, to focus on monistic industrial investment instead of cross industrial investment; reviews the company positioning strategy from the point of ascendancy competitiveness strategy; studies the execution of organization change between merger and merged companies and verifies the effectiveness of strategic alliances from the viewpoint of accumulated long term competitiveness advantages. The thesis studies from theoretical research to the case study of Advantech Co. which applies the exploratory research method. The Advantech Co. conducted an alliance with Axiomtek Co. in 2002 by stock swap between the two companies. Advantech owns 65% of Axiomtek after the alliance. It is my purpose to assay the process of strategic alliance and try to provide some advices to improve the effectiveness of this strategy. Conclusions can be summarized as follows 1. The strategic alliances or diversification investment between vertical market players can contribute less for cumulating the competitiveness if it is targeted to prevail by maximizing the production efficiency synergy. 2. A superior alliance strategy in vertical market is to analyze the market attributes and anchor the company positioning which helps the competitiveness accumulating for a player. 3. By implementing the disruptive innovation theory in market competition strategy, one company can develop alliance with a lower cost, 2nd tier or less functionality product provider to create the barrier for protecting attack from the disruptive competitors. 4. The resources, process and value are three scopes to judge whether two companies need be combined as one company or not. When those three measurements are formulating more advantages after combining based on mergers decision on companies positioning strategy, then, it should be combined as one company, otherwise vice versa. 5. The key success factors will be reformed accordingly if the acquirer re-positioning the company. A correspondent organization change also is recommended to be implemented.