A Framework for Identifying and Evaluating the Disruptive Potential of Innovation

Disruption theory intends to explain how start-ups and newcomers can appear out of an unnoticed point in the market, find their ways into the main market and put the interests of long-standing companies in danger drastically. Regarding the originality and conceptual ambiguity of disruption, this study first tries to explain the two concepts of disruption and disruptive innovation. Subsequently, focusing on the literature related to the evaluation of disruption, it applied meta-analysis approach and probed 13 selected researches in order to find the effective factors founding this phenomenon. In the following step, the acquired factors and indicators were refined through sharing them with innovation and technology experts, based on the Fuzzy screening method. Finally, a framework containing disruption steps, the innate characteristics of innovation and the contextual conditions for evaluating the potential of an innovation at the industry level is presented.