The Interface of IT Capabilities and Disruptive Innovations

The occurrence of disruptive innovations tends to challenge the fabric, structure and capability that define firms facing their threat. Prior research indicates that the capacity of a firm to restructure and reconfigure its resources to face/leverage such turbulent situations is dependent on how well it can orchestrate its capabilities. Although IT capability has been identified as one of the essential capability of today’s organisations, managers as well as researchers are yet to uncover the dynamics through which an organisation’s IT capability can be leveraged in disruptive innovation situations. This paper contributes to our understanding in this direction by conceptually exploring the different roles of an organisation's IT capabilitiy in disruptive innovation scenarios. The paper provides a synthesis of the current state of knowledge about both concepts and extends this to highlight the different dimensions through which prior IT capability research could contribute to our knowledge of disruptive innovations. We advance the theoretical concepts of “disrupt-ability and disruptability” as dual dimensions of IT capability in disruptive innovation scenarios, that underscore the capacity of an organization's IT capability to serve as an enabler, a sustainer or a barrier.