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The Disruption Myth and Gaps in the Innovation Ecosystem

Completed

While some scholars argue that the theory of “disruptive innovation” overlooks socio-economic realities, many across industry, academia, and policy nevertheless embrace the notion that technologies that create new markets and value networks can and do effectively disrupt industries and displace earlier technologies. This GUIRR meeting explored what disruptive innovation and disruptive innovators look like today; how patterns of disruption and business dynamism are changing in a modern world; how the study of disruption can affect the structure of innovation ecosystems; and how disruption can inform national science and technology policy in the present and the future.

Description

An ad hoc committee will organize a workshop on disruptive innovation and gaps in the innovation ecosystem to be held in conjunction with the October 2015 GUIRR meeting. The workshop will explore potentially disruptive technologies in energy, life sciences, transportation, and the sharing economy, and will consider how the study of disruptive innovation can be used to contextualize historical events and to create projections for future trends in the innovation landscape across sectors and industry. The workshop will also explore how consideration of disruptive innovation shapes decision-making within the U.S. innovation ecosystem, and how this affects international competitiveness. A brief rapporteur-authored workshop summary will be published.

Contributors

Committee

Richard N. Foster

Chair

Dennis Fortner

Member

H. Gilbert Miller

Member

Staff

Susan Sauer Sloan

Lead

Megan Nicholson

Major units and sub-units

National Academy of Sciences

Collaborator

National Academy of Medicine

Collaborator

Policy and Global Affairs

Lead

Government-University-Industry-Philanthropy Research Roundtable

Lead

U.S. Science and Innovation Policy

Lead

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