Clayton Christensen
1952–2020 — scholar of disruptive innovation and the innovator's dilemma
Author
Harvard Business School professor who framed why incumbents fail against disruptive entrants — context for organisational resistance to architectural change.
Clayton Christensen (1952–2020) was an American scholar of innovation and management, best known for disruptive innovation and the innovator’s dilemma — why well-run incumbents lose to entrants that start with products the mainstream correctly rejects.
What we cite
- Incumbent rationality — serving best customers can blind firms to threats below the margin; connects to why operational capabilities dominate until dynamic capabilities are needed.
- Contrast with epistemic vignettes — Christensen explains firm-level strategy over time; not the same as The Innovation Divide (same-room tier confusion).
Corpus stance
Context — we attribute the dilemma frame; we do not treat Christensen’s full disruption taxonomy as settled doctrine for this corpus.