A revised perspective on Disruptive Innovation - Exploring Value, Networks and Business models

The concept of disruptive innovation has received much attention in recent years. These innovations can be defined as offering an initially lower performance while at the same time bringing some new attributes to the market. This thesis aims to develop and extend existing theory on disruptive innovation with an emphasis on business models and value networks.Previous work in this area has shown that incumbents are often toppled by entrants when disruptive innovations are introduced since these technologies are not initially demanded by the established firms’ customers. Much attention has been devoted to how disruptive innovations emerge in low-end segments and in new markets. However, more knowledge is needed about whether and how they can prosper inside an incumbent firm’s established market segment. Moreover, the challenges related to these innovations have increasingly been framed as related to the business model of firms, but little is known regarding how and why this is the case.Drawing upon data from several case studies, the empirical findings in this dissertation suggest that disruptive innovations may prosper in a segment where incumbents are already present. They do so by compensating the lower traditional performance with some new ways of creating value, for instance by removing labor or changing activities inside the customer’s organization. These findings in turn suggest that this theory needs to focus more on how different performance dimensions create value. Additionally, it is argued that a more nuanced conceptualization of customers and networks is needed. When regarding customers as a collection of actors with different competencies and incentives, it becomes clear that disruptive innovations are problematic even when a firm’s existing customers demand them. These innovations may be incompatible with the different activities and incentives of some actors, which may result in a barrier to adoption. Disruptive innovation can therefore be regarded as a business model challenge in the sense that the new value creation and distribution distorts the firm’s surrounding constellation of actors. Firms need to change their network, but struggle to do so since business models transcend their boundaries and they are therefore forced to act under conditions of interdependence

Omvälvande teknikskiften - Facitkrisen ur ett förvarningsperspektiv. En fallstudie av världskoncernen Facit och dess omvärldsbevakning speciellt under åren 1968-72.

Facit var ett välkänt företag med världsomspännande verksamhet med bl.a. stor och lönsam tillverkning av mekaniska räknemaskiner. I början på 70-talet drabbades Facit av en överraskande kris som ledde till omfattande struktur-omvandling och personalnedskärningar. Syftet med denna uppsats var att undersöka om man kan finna paralleller mellan förvarningsprocesser på nationell nivå och det som utspelar sig inom ett storföretag (Facitkoncernen) på väg in i kris som en följd av snabba omvärldsförändringar. Som underlag för analysen har data samlats in från litteraturen, via intervjuer och arkiv, samt kompletterats med material från internetkällor. Efter strukturering av data slutfördes analysen som en kvalitativ jämförande analys. En slutsats är att Facit tycks ha haft en fungerande teknisk omvärldsbevakning och var väl insatt i elektronikens då snabba och omvälvande utveckling, och själva en medaktör. Det var inte den tekniska insikten som fallerade, däremot skapade man sig, som det visade sig, en alltför optimistisk bild av vilken effekt detta skulle få på etablerad teknologi. Facit reagerade inte nämnvärt på upprepade varningssignaler och sköt upp potentiella åtgärder, tills företaget 1971 överraskades av den plötsliga och genomgripande nedgången i efterfrågan på mekaniska kontorsräknare och de hastigt sjunkande priserna på de elektroniska räknarna. Uppsatsen visar att man inom ett storföretag som Facit, utsatt för snabba och omvälvande förändringar i omvärlden, kan identifiera förvarningsprocesser liknande dem som beskrivits på nationell nivå, samt också finna tecken på samma sorts problem och hinder

Survey of multi-function display and control technology

The NASA orbiter spacecraft incorporates a complex array of systems, displays and controls. The incorporation of discrete dedicated controls into a multi-function display and control system (MFDCS) offers the potential for savings in weight, power, panel space and crew training time. The technology applicable to the development of a MFDCS for orbiter application is surveyed. Technology thought to be applicable presently or in the next five years is highlighted. Areas discussed include display media, data handling and processing, controls and operator interactions and the human factors considerations which are involved in a MFDCS design. Several examples of applicable MFDCS technology are described

Digital Disruption beyond Uber and Airbnb – tracking the long tail of the sharing economy

The sharing economy can be regarded as a discontinuous innovation that creates increased abundance throughout society. Extant literature on the sharing economy has been predominantly concerned with Uber and Airbnb. As little is known about where the sharing economy is gaining momentum beyond transportation and accommodation, the purpose of this paper is to map in what sectors of the economy it is perceived to gain traction. Drawing on data from social and traditional media in Sweden, we identify a long tail of 17 sectors and 47 subsectors in which a total of 165 unique sharing-economy actors operate, including sectors such as on-demand services, fashion and clothing, and food delivery. Our findings therefore point at the expanding scope of the sharing economy and relatedly, we derive a set of implications for firms

Development as a new Paradigm for Improved Tendon Healing: A Characterization of Neonatal Tendon Development, Healing During Development and An investigation into Differential Parameters During Accelerated Healing

During neonatal development, tendons undergo a well orchestrated process whereby extensive structural and compositional changes occur in synchrony to produce a normal tissue. Conversely, during the repair response to injury, structural and compositional changes occur, but in this case, a mechanically inferior tendon is produced. An injured tendon that is mechanically inferior has compromised function and reruptures after treatment are commonly observed clinically. As a result, the process of development has been postulated as a potential paradigm through which improved adult tissue healing may occur. First, the role of CD44 in healing was examined through a patellar tendon injury in a CD44 knockout mouse. A beneficial environment post injury was shown to lead to improved function in the CD44 knockout tendons. Second, type XIV collagen was examined in tendons during development and maturity through Col14a1-/-, Col14+/- and Col14+/+ flexor digitorum longus tendons. A lack of type XIV collagen during development was associated with reduced mechanical parameters but had no effect in mature tendons. Third, compositional, structural and mechanical properties were quantitatively characterized during multiple stages of neonatal Achilles tendon development in a mouse. Mechanical parameters, collagen content, fibril diameter average and standard deviation all increased with age. Biglycan expression decreased with age while decorin and angular deviation did not change. Fourth, compositional, structural and mechanical parameters were quantified after injury during two different stages of development, early and late. An accelerated healing process was demonstrated during early development over late development. Lastly, regression analysis was used to determine which compositional and structural parameters predicted mechanical parameters during early and late development and healing. Applying these differentially regulated parameters to new treatments may help improve healing in adult tendons. Importantly, this dissertation was conducted in a mouse model which is allows for future mechanistic studies due to the availability of genetically modified mice and commercially available assays. Over all, this dissertation introduces development as a new paradigm through which to study improved function during healing and potential new therapeutic treatments

Ubuntu and philoxenia: Ubuntu and Christian worldviews as responses to xenophobia

Xenophobic attitudes and violence have become regular phenomena in South Africa and other parts of the world. Xenophobia is of great concern not only to South Africans, but also to most developed countries or countries that are considered economically and politically viable by their neighbours, and which offer a safe haven for people who, for whatever reason, are forced to seek refuge elsewhere. Although xenophobia is not unique to South Africa, its most worrying aspect in South Africa is the government’s inability to deal with this evil. The article seeks tochallenge South Africa as a dominantly Ubuntu and Judeo-Christian influenced country to fight xenophobia through appealing to Ubuntu values and philoxenia. By Judeo-Christian, I mean religious beliefs and values that are common to both these religions, namely Judaism and Christianity. The article further suggests the ontology that perceives the ‘other’ as an extension of the self. It is argued that South African citizens are collectively responsible for acts of violence against foreign nationals and should thus look for a morally sustainable solution to this evil. The article relies heavily on the work of Kristeva, entitled Strangers to Ourselves, and on the work of Nussbaum, entitled Ubuntu: Reflections of a South African on Our Common Humanity, in Reflections, the Society for Organizational Learning and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Physics Avoidance & Cooperative Semantics: Inferentialism and Mark Wilson’s Engagement with Naturalism Qua Applied Mathematics

Mark Wilson argues that the standard categorizations of "Theory T thinking"— logic-centered conceptions of scientific organization (canonized via logical empiricists in the mid-twentieth century)—dampens the understanding and appreciation of those strategic subtleties working within science. By "Theory T thinking," we mean to describe the simplistic methodology in which mathematical science allegedly supplies ‘processes’ that parallel nature's own in a tidily isomorphic fashion, wherein "Theory T’s" feigned rigor and methodological dogmas advance inadequate discrimination that fails to distinguish between explanatory structures that are architecturally distinct. One of Wilson's main goals is to reverse such premature exclusions and, thus, early on Wilson returns to John Locke's original physical concerns regarding material science and the congeries of descriptive concern insofar as capturing varied phenomena (i.e., cohesion, elasticity, fracture, and the transmission of coherent work) encountered amongst ordinary solids like wood and steel are concerned. Of course, Wilson methodologically updates such a purview by appealing to multiscalar techniques of modern computing, drawing from Robert Batterman's work on the greediness of scales and Jim Woodward's insights on causation

Computing, Modelling, and Scientific Practice: Foundational Analyses and Limitations

This dissertation examines aspects of the interplay between computing and scientific practice. The appropriate foundational framework for such an endeavour is rather real computability than the classical computability theory. This is so because physical sciences, engineering, and applied mathematics mostly employ functions defined in continuous domains. But, contrary to the case of computation over natural numbers, there is no universally accepted framework for real computation; rather, there are two incompatible approaches --computable analysis and BSS model--, both claiming to formalise algorithmic computation and to offer foundations for scientific computing. The dissertation consists of three parts. In the first part, we examine what notion of 'algorithmic computation' underlies each approach and how it is respectively formalised. It is argued that the very existence of the two rival frameworks indicates that 'algorithm' is not one unique concept in mathematics, but it is used in more than one way. We test this hypothesis for consistency with mathematical practice as well as with key foundational works that aim to define the term. As a result, new connections between certain subfields of mathematics and computer science are drawn, and a distinction between 'algorithms' and 'effective procedures' is proposed. In the second part, we focus on the second goal of the two rival approaches to real computation; namely, to provide foundations for scientific computing. We examine both frameworks in detail, what idealisations they employ, and how they relate to floating-point arithmetic systems used in real computers. We explore limitations and advantages of both frameworks, and answer questions about which one is preferable for computational modelling and which one for addressing general computability issues. In the third part, analog computing and its relation to analogue (physical) modelling in science are investigated. Based on some paradigmatic cases of the former, a certain view about the nature of computation is defended, and the indispensable role of representation in it is emphasized and accounted for. We also propose a novel account of the distinction between analog and digital computation and, based on it, we compare analog computational modelling to physical modelling. It is concluded that the two practices, despite their apparent similarities, are orthogonal

Science in Court Society: Giovanni Battista Benedetti’s Diversarum speculationum mathematicarum et physicarum liber (Turin, 1585)

Giovanni Battista Benedetti is counted as one of the most brilliant mathematical and philosophical minds of the late Italian Renaissance. However, the theoretical and historical relevance of his work is still obscure in many respects. This is due to several factors, principal among which is the relative rarity of his major work, Diversarum speculationum mathematicarum et physicarum liber (Book including various mathematical and physical speculations), 1585.This work was a major contribution to Renaissance science, especially due to its insights on mechanics, the mathematical approach to natural investigation, and the connection of celestial and terrestrial dynamics in a post-Copernican perspective. The first edition was an elegant folio, which includes heterogeneous writings not only on mathematics and physics but also on technical and philosophical issues. Benedetti presented these as short treatises or letters addressed to gentlemen, courtiers, scholars, engineers, and practitioners of different arts. The Diversae speculationes appeared in a series of prestigious volumes aimed at celebrating the magnificence of the court and the capital. It aimed to make the quality of the court mathematician’s research and skills publicly appreciable. It also bore witness to the intensity of the cultural debates going on in Turin or connecting it with other centers, especially Venice.This open access edition makes the Benedetti’s work accessible to a large scholarly readership. In the extensive introduction, his achievement is presented in its rich complexity. Benedetti is emblematic of his time and of the non-linearity of the historical process of Renaissance science with its multicentric institutions and scientific networks. The apparent fragmentary nature of his work hides a fundamental unity of the conception and the method, both of which rest on geometry. Benedetti regarded mechanics as a model, but he enlarged his perspective to include the most varied fields of investigation and concretely to demonstrate the fruitfulness of his approach to universal knowledge, astronomy, physics, meteorology, and even to ethics.Edition Open Sources (EOS) pioneers a new paradigm in the publishing of historical sources. Academic editions of primary sources in the history of science are published in online, digital, and print formats that present facsimiles, transcriptions, and often translations of original works with an introduction to the author, the text, and the context in which it was written. The sources are historical books, manuscripts, documents, or other archival materials that are otherwise difficult to access. EOS is a cooperation between the University of Oklahoma Libraries, the Department for the History of Science der University of Oklahoma, and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

Representations of Time in Late-Medieval Music

The late-medieval style that is characterized by complexity of rhythm, notation, and pitch is commonly referred to as the ars subtilior, the “more subtle art,” a term coined by Ursula Günther in 1963. Along with its stylistic attributes, the scope of this repertory has been defined chronologically and geographically, associated with Southern France and Northern Italy during the period c. 1380–1420. In recent years, scholars such as David Catalunya, David Fallows, Karl Kügle, Jason Stoessel, Anne Stone, and Anna Zayaruznaya have argued that the so-called ars subtilior style should be expanded to incorporate a wider chronological and geographical purview. Responding to this work, this dissertation offers a solution to the problems associated with the ars subtilior style by presenting a “conceptual genealogy” (Dutilh Novaes) of complex notations. Eschewing the chronological and geographical boundaries that are typically ascribed to the ars subtilior, as well as the term itself, this dissertation interrogates the ideas that underscore late-medieval notationally complex repertory. In doing so, it argues that a consideration of the constituent ideas of music-theoretical and practical representations of time in notation can provide glimpses into the mental habits of past people. These habits can reveal that notational systems that appear complex or unintelligible to a modern eye may have posed few challenges to a medieval reader. Chapter 1 provides historical background to the late-medieval notations discussed throughout the dissertation. Problematizing the idea that there was a strict dichotomy between “atomistic” and “divisibilist” theorizations of continua of musical time in early–mid fourteenth-century theory, it suggests that the plurality of ways of theorizing continua of musical time in this period provided a conceptual background to the notationally and rhythmically intricate repertory that would be written down in the decades to come. Chapters 2 and 3 provide the first in-depth consideration of the work of the Italian theorist Johannes Vetulus de Anagnia, author of Liber de musica, whose treatise is translated into English in an appendix to the dissertation. Providing a new interpretation of Vetulus’s hierarchies of musical time, Chapter 2 illustrates that Vetulus synthesizes and exhausts a number of fourteenth-century music-theoretical systems. It argues that he provides a primarily speculative theory of music that nevertheless contends with some of the problems of the representation of musical time that would be explored in practice using complex notations. Chapter 3 expands on this work by discussing the theological and philosophical grounding of Vetulus’s theory. Revealing his mystical project to use music to describe a world in which all parts of reality were interconnected, it provides evidence for hitherto unknown connections between Vetulus’s work and that of Augustine of Hippo, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, and Ramon Llull. The final two chapters provide analyses of complex repertory. Chapter 4 argues that reading complex notations entails a distinct pattern of looking that prioritizes the observation of longer spans of notation. When such a reading habit is put into practice, some notations that appear inscrutable to a modern analyst arguably facilitate ease of reading. Detailing a new, emic understanding of mensuration, Chapter 5 provides evidence that medieval notations were at times chosen that could instruct musicians to count temporal units that were thought, but not uttered aloud. Through this, it argues that some late-medieval notationally complex repertory that has historically been described as “music for the eyes” may also productively be considered “music for the mind.