Introduction to the special dossier section “Translation and Disruption”

Abstract

Olga Torres Hostench Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona olga.torres.hostench@uab.cat; ORCID: 0000-0003-1525-0304 “Disrupt or be disrupted” seems to be a mantra in the business world at the moment: innovative technologies are valued highly as a way of solving problems where traditional business models were unable to. The idea of “disruption” is widely recognised to have derived from Clayton M. Christensen’s notion of “disruptive innovation”. In his seminal book The Innovator's Dilemma (1997), Christensen expounded how a small-scale but innovative digital technology can overthrow large well-managed businesses (for which Christensen uses the term “incumbents”) in a very short time. One of more famous examples discussed by Christensen is the development of computer disks. Since then, the idea of digital disruption has caused both excitement and concern in businesses worldwide, and is much discussed in fields ranging from financial services (with disruptive fintech technologies), retail (a good example of a disruptor is Amazon), entertainment distribution (Netflix), the hospitality sector (Airbnb) to the taxi industry (Uber).