Building an organisational self-disruption capability for a competitive advantage: an investigation of the organisational antecedents

Abstract

Organisations need to be able to self-disrupt in order to sustain their competitive advantage in todayÕs rapidly changing environment characterised as being highly Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) and resulting in discontinuous change. Organisational innovation practices determine their ability to respond to an environment in a state of flux. Many organisations fail to respond to disruptive discontinuous change and are unable to sustain a competitive advantage because they are unable to make the necessary adjustments in their strategies, structures, business models and culture. They are often unwilling to cannibalise their current investments. Dynamic capabilities enable organisations to reconfigure, renew, integrate and refresh their resources, competencies and capabilities in response to a rapidly changing world. This research proposed a conceptual model for enabling Organisational Self-Disruption as a dynamic capability that will empower a willingness to cannibalise in order to sustain competitive advantage. The model proposed that a strategic innovation management system and the dynamic capabilities of organisational ambidexterity, strategic flexibility and strategic renewal can be used in an organisation to enable them to successfully self-disrupt if necessary. A qualitative exploratory study evaluated organisational self-disruption and the elements of the proposed conceptual model. Findings suggest that managers recognise the importance of organisational self-disruption and that elements of the model may be useful in developing the dynamic capability of self-disruption.