The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail

Clayton M. Christensen begins by recalling two research topics that guided him through the book’s inception: the causes of corporate failure and functional models for predicting successful innovation.

Christensen stresses that the first topic remains relevant, noting that many successful companies still fall into patterns of failure. He cites customer satisfaction and high-return investments as the causes of failure, explaining that these actually contribute to the titular innovator’s dilemma, a paradox that arises from the inability to tackle simple but disruptive technologies that emerge in low-margin markets. Christensen recalls a research colleague who connected disruptive technology with economist Joseph Schumpeter’s ideas on creative destruction and economic progress.

As for the second research question, Christensen points to venture capitalists, whose investments garner such low success rates that it only proves that innovation is inherently unpredictable. Christensen turns to oil drilling as an analogy, stating that drillers in the early 20th century might have initially followed their instincts to probe wells. By the end of the century, however, researchers had developed data analysis theories that improved drilling efficiency. Christensen wants his research to aid readers in a similar way.