by Clayton Christensen
Christensen explains why successful companies fail: they rationally ignore disruptive innovations that initially serve small, unprofitable markets, until those markets overtake them entirely.
In this collection, The Innovator's Dilemma references 1 other book and is cited by 33 other books.
It draws on Built to Last.
It’s picked up by Loonshots, The Lean Enterprise and Running Lean and 30 others.
Scroll down to read the exact passages where other authors reference this book and what they say about it.
Christensen's explanation of why successful companies fail by rationally ignoring disruptive innovations has become the default framework for understanding technology disruption. Eric Ries built The Lean Startup directly on Christensen's disruption theory, and the concept has been applied to everything from AI adoption to startup strategy - Ajay Agrawal and colleagues use it to predict which industries cheap AI prediction will upend.
The book has also generated productive pushback: Safi Bahcall distinguishes his 'loonshots' framework from disruption theory, Hamilton Helmer contrasts it with his Counter-Positioning concept, and Ali Tamaseb's data on unicorn founders finds more direct market competition than the disruption frame predicts. Despite these refinements, the core insight - that incumbents can do everything right and still lose - remains one of the most cited ideas in business strategy.
The books Christensen references and why each one mattered to the argument.
Christensen references Built to Last on why enduring companies face disruption.
The exact passages where other authors bring up “The Innovator's Dilemma” and what they take from it.
Bahcall explicitly distinguishes his "loonshots" framework from Christensen's disruption theory, arguing that what kills companies isn't disruptive technology but a failure to nurture fragile early-stage ideas.
References Christensen's Innovator's Dilemma to explain why large companies struggle with disruptive innovation
References Christensen's disruption theory when discussing how to identify underserved market opportunities
Cites Christensen's Innovator's Dilemma when distinguishing existing markets from resegmented and new markets
Co-authored with Christensen, directly extends the Innovator's Dilemma framework to individual innovator behaviours
Johnson worked with Christensen and directly applies the Innovator's Dilemma's S-curve disruption model to individual careers
How ideas flow through the citation network. Ancestors are books this title builds on; descendants are books that build on it.
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