The Risk of Adopting Disruptive Technology to Gain Global Competitive Advantage

Managers in organizations willing to consider and use information technology as a global competitive advantage must be willing to “think differently” than they traditionally have. The main changes include recognition that existing technology and IT can be a competitive advantage, the ability to act entrepreneurially, and the willingness to cannibalize existing technology and infrastructure to develop and maintain that competitive advantage, and finally, the understanding of and decision of when/how to adopt and diffuse technology within the organization. Taking risks appears to be one of the means to be competitive in the global marketplace. The adoption of disruptive technology by firms attempt to gain a competitive advantage appears to be on the increase, particularly in the IT arena. The problem with this strategy is there will be strategic winners as well as losers. The focus is on how to win rather than what to do with the disruptive technology is just that, disruptive. Can the risk taking have a deleterious impact of the entire company to the point that recovery and/or sustainability is in question. There needs to be additional research on the overall impact on risk taking under the guise of gaining global competitive advantage.