Sustaining innovations improve performance
Sustaining innovations are attractive to the management of an organization because they improve the efficiency, scale, profit margin, or stability of the existing product that meets the needs of the current customer base.
Most new technologies foster improved product performance. I call these sustaining technologies. Some sustaining technologies can be discontinuous or radical in character, while others are of an incremental nature. What all sustaining technologies have in common is that they improve the performance of established products,[1]
See also:
- Disruptive innovation is antithetical to good management
- Efficiency is purchased by a loss in flexibility
The Innovator’s Dilemma – Christensen (1997), § “Introduction.” ↩︎