A Framework For Assessing The Impact Of Potential Disruptive Technologies In Business

Abstract

Today's world prompts businesses with increased challenges in what competitiveness concerns. Challenges span from the need for a post-pandemic recovery to the hardship driven by world conflicts, growing energy prices, and inflation among others. With the resulting intense competition businesses look for news ways to innovate and gain a competitive edge on their arenas. Technology has been a major driver for business competitiveness, and the acceleration in the creation of new products and services only makes matters more difficult for most businesses. Business leaders and top management teams across industries have to manage finite resources and funds, while at the same time deal with tough choices on how to react on technological threats which may affect their businesses, sometimes with catastrophic consequences, as has happened by the effect of technological change over history. At other times some apparent technological advantage my prompt business leaders to choose among alternative technological paths. Such decision makers oftentimes lack a framing and pragmatic approach to assess such potentially disruptive technologies.This paper proposes an alternative framework for assessing the impacts of potential disruptive technologies across business relevant dimensions – the sort of competitive edge companies look for when searching for a competitive edge. This research followed a critical thinking approach supported by alternative analysis techniques. The framework proposed comprises five dimensions: strategic, operational, tactical, technical, and organizational. The strategic dimension considers political, economic, military, cultural, and legal factors as variables. The operational dimension evaluates performance, congruence, and opportunity. In the tactical dimension, the variables are secrecy, as well as tactics, techniques, and procedures. The technical dimension takes into account performance, maturity, and interconnectedness. Finally, the organizational dimension includes internal support, pacing gap, and cost as variables. Examples of historical disruptive technologies will be provided. By analyzing the impact of a specific technology on these dimensions and variables, the framework can determine whether the impact is null, moderate, high, or revolutionary. The framework that is suggested for evaluating the impact of potentially disruptive technologies serves as a valuable tool for informing policymakers, business and industry leaders, and supporting decisions concerning technology investment, capability development, and other strategic initiatives.

Keywords: Business competitiveness, Disruptive technologies, Framework, Impact

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1004072