Identifying Disruptive Innovation : Innovation Theory and the Defense Industry

This article improves Clayton Christensen's widely cited theory of innovation and applies it to explain recent developments in the U.S. defense industry. We clarify Christensen's categorization of innovations, and expand the theory's scope to products with multiple quality attributes and markets that have a 'demand pull' for innovation. We then demonstrate that military leaders have misdiagnosed the current wave of innovation by casually claiming that it is disruptive. These improvements to Christensen's theory could help improve military investment decisions