Disruptive Technologies and the Law

In the past two decades, the concept of disruptive technology has gone from theory, to buzz word, to the captivation of the popular imagination. Disruptive innovation goes beyond improving existing products; it seeks to tap unforeseen markets, create products to solve problems consumers don\u27t know that they have, and ultimately to change the face of industry. We are all the beneficiaries of disruption. Every smartphone carrying, MP3-listening, Netflix-watching consumer is taking advantage of technologies once unimaginable, but that now feel indispensable. Silicon Valley\u27s pursuit of disruption will continue to benefit and delight a world of consumers. But where disruption may once have been the secondary result of innovation, disruption has become a goal in and of itself. Today, I want to urge a cautionary note: The tech community\u27s solipsistic focus on disruption, to the exclusion of human and legal values, can be problematic. We can see these potential problems in the development of three areas: mass surveillance, 3D printing, and driverless cars

reStAGEactivist art/disruptive technologies

In this article, I explore, with you, artists’ socio-political disruptions with communication technologies to inspire political action and social change, and how such art can be environmentally and socially useful. How does art function politically? What is activist art? What non-violent forms of dissent or disruptions to harmful practices are possible today with digital technologies, and how do artists manifest political perspectives in their practice

Management & Leadership in the Environment of Disruptive Innovation

Long-term research in various industries (Abernathy et al. 1983, Utterback. 1997, Christensen. 2003, Christensen et al. 2003, 2004) offers evidence as to why established organisations are able to deal with incremental innovation and why their failure rate increases when innovation becomes radical or disruptive. In a Schumpeterian understanding, disruptive innovation simultaneously destroys existing and creates new industries (the wind of creative destruction), e.g., typewriter vs. computer or VHS vs. DVD. Other industries, e.g., computer and the camera industry, are confronted with radical innovation, e.g., by convergent technologies, causing major shifts in the macro and microenvironment. Employing two theories, the disruptive innovation theory and resources, process, and values theory, the paper sets out to explain underlying reasons for such adaptive failure and identify the challenges for both management and leadership in such turbulent environments. The proposition is that the more radical an innovation becomes, the impact of both technologies and market linkages may result in threats for an industry to become obsolete. Management and leadership need to reflect then on adopting either end-game strategies in a disruptive (Harrigan. 2003, 1980, Harrigan et al. 1983) or change strategies in a radical environment (Balogun et al. 2004, Johnson et al. 2008, Trott. 2008, Tidd et al. 2005). Such challenges in the environment require management and leadership styles, which embrace organisational learning and future orientation to improve an enterprise’s position in its permanent struggle for survival (Helfer et al. 2006). Key words: Management and leadership, disruptive innovation, radical innovation, change

Technology Use for Extra-Curricular Activities and Academic Performance in Library Instruction Sessions

This poster reports on a study that investigated: a. The impact of students’ use of technology for extracurricular purposes during instruction sessions and its effects on their learning and retention of information. b. Whether attendance at a previous library instruction session provided the students with the advantage of scoring higher in the assessment, and c. Whether the use of these technologies in class sessions was disruptive to other students

Quantum Communication Technology

Quantum communication is built on a set of disruptive concepts and technologies. It is driven by fascinating physics and by promising applications. It requires a new mix of competencies, from telecom engineering to theoretical physics, from theoretical computer science to mechanical and electronic engineering. First applications have already found their way to niche markets and university labs are working on futuristic quantum networks, but most of the surprises are still ahead of us. Quantum communication, and more generally quantum information science and technologies, are here to stay and will have a profound impact on the XXI century

Assessing the Disruptiveness of New Energy Technologies - An Ex-Ante Perspective

For those organizations that experience disruption, they usually understand the situation when it is already too late. The real challenge to any theory, especially if it is of high relevance for managers, is how it performs predictively. Can the theory of disruptive technologies be used not only to analyze cases ex post but to predict the potential disruptive technologies ex ante? Established companies are skeptical of the idea of disruptiveness, because of the difficulty of making predictions given the ex post nature of the theory. In this regard the goal of this report is to provide a general measure of disruptiveness and develop a framework that can assess technologies whether they have the potential to be proven disruptive. The developed assessment framework captures the essential characteristic and holistic success factors for disruptive technologies based on the theory of Christensen and a number of clarifications as seen in the literature. The framework is applied and validated by assessing the disruptive potential of five renewable energy technologies (wind energy, solar energy, biomass, hydro power, geothermal) in the power generation, heating and transportation sectors of four European countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Germany and Romania). The results show the applicability of the framework and give insights into technology and country specific determinants of energy market sector disruptions. (authors' abstract)Series: Working Papers / Institute for Strategic Management / Energy & Strategy Think Tan

Managing innovation : navigating disruptive and transformational technologies

This document describes the focus of the Managing Innovation: Navigating Disruptive and Transformational Technologies area. This area was formerly called Understanding and Managing Disruptive and Transformational Technologies.Major technological changes unleash large-scale social, cultural, economic and political consequences. Digitized computing is the most recent example of disruptive technology; the wheel could be regarded as one of the earliest. MU's collaborative work across all fields - including the social sciences and the humanities - will advance research, education and economic development as scientists and scholars study how current technologies fundamentally change in these rapidly evolving times

Blockchain for social good: a quantitative analysis

The rise of blockchain technologies has given a boost to social good projects, which are trying to exploit various characteristic features of blockchains: the quick and inexpensive transfer of cryptocurrency, the transparency of transactions, the ability to tokenize any kind of assets, and the increase in trustworthiness due to decentralization. However, the swift pace of innovation in blockchain technologies, and the hype that has surrounded their "disruptive potential", make it difficult to understand whether these technologies are applied correctly, and what one should expect when trying to apply them to social good projects. This paper addresses these issues, by systematically analysing a collection of 120 blockchain-enabled social good projects. Focussing on measurable and objective aspects, we try to answer various relevant questions: which features of blockchains are most commonly used? Do projects have success in fund raising? Are they making appropriate choices on the blockchain architecture? How many projects are released to the public, and how many are eventually abandoned?Comment: In GOODTECHS 201

Technoligical Life Cycles Regional Clusters Facing Disruption

The phenomenon of technological life cycles is argued to be of great importance in the development of regional clusters. New 'disruptive' technologies may initiate the emergence of new regional industrial clusters and/or create new opportunities for further development of existing ones. However, they may also result in stagnation and decline of the latter. The term disruptive refers to such significant changes in the basic technologies that may change the industrial landscape, even in the shorter run. The paper examines the key features of a regional cluster, where the economic development patterns are quite closely related to the emergence of new key technologies.Technological life cycles, regional clusters, communication technology