The usefulness of measuring disruptiveness of innovations ex post in making ex ante predictions

The three issues of measuring low-end disruptions, general measure of disruptiveness, and the criticism of Christensen's (1997) disruptiveness notion by Danneel (2004), are discussed. The aim is to add rigor to an important, substantive area of research on disruptiveness, and the first step in achieving this goal is to identify ways to measure the disruptiveness construct. This is done by elaborating the use of ex post measures to make ex ante predictions about the type of incumbents better able to develop disruptive innovations in relation to other firms. The disruptive technology framework to make ex ante predictions about the type of firms likely to develop disruptive innovations.