Disruptive Innovations and the Time-to-entry of Incumbent Firms: a Theoretical Model

In the academic literature on technological innovation there are repeated arguments demonstrating that disruptive innovations are difficult to adopt for incumbents, and often cause failures to enter into new markets. There is evidence that many incumbents need a long time to achieve the entry. This is mainly due to the reluctance to adopt technologies that render obsolete the established knowledge base. While there is a general consensus about the elements determining these difficulties, it is still unclear how and to what extent these elements affect the time needed to incumbent firms to achieve the entry. The main purpose of this paper is to understand the determinants of time-to-entry of incumbent firms in face of disruptive innovations. The proposed contribution is theoretical and is developed in three components: (1) development of a theoretical model that breaks down time-to-entry process in three constructs: time of recognition, i.e. the identification of innovative technology; time of reaction, that is the speed to invest in the new know-how; and time of implementation, specifically the time to integrate new technologies in productive processes. (2) Formulation of some theoretical propositions on the determinants of the temporal length of the above mentioned sub-processes that precede entry. (3) Articulation of suggestions for an agenda of future research on time-to-entry.