Objetivos específicos.

Prior discussion of the RPV Framework highlighted resources, processes and values which are necessary to drive current projects (sustaining innovations), although the same may become deficiencies in disruptive innovation projects because they are constructed around the former projects. It was recognised that some of these building blocks of the framework are tangible while others are intangible. Although acknowledging brands and product designs, the meanings attached to which could potentially be some valuable intangibles, a missing factor among them is reputation as a key component of organisational resources. As it has been noted, the reputations of incumbents (as it is their identity) become a salient feature when the theory of disruption is looked at from a sensemaking standpoint. Therefore the general point made here is that the sources of the competitive advantages of incumbents do not exclude their reputational statuses; 1 _{which have influences on or are influenced by} organisational identity as previously discussed. This section looks especially at the ways in which organisational members’ sense of who they are, as mirroring the image or reputation of their organisations, may influence how they perceive disruptive innovations. The concept of image has been explained as the nexus linking identity, which is organisational members’ perceptions about their identity as viewed by external observers, and reputation, which is the external overseers’ perception about the identity of a particular organisation.

Weick has suggested that identity construction in sensemaking is driven towards satisfying three needs, namely, enhancement, efficacy and consistency of meanings related to the identity of the self. As previously noted, Weick points out that when organisational identity meanings are incongruent with and thus leading to contradiction between meanings of self- references and the perceived meanings observers impose on these referents, organisational members tend to make efforts to resolve the discrepancy. It was also highlighted that the incongruence is accompanied by a negative feeling that drives the need to remove it by taking actions which are driven to remove the discrepancy. That displayed organisational members as inclined to sustain meanings which reflect favourably on the organisation, which also means meanings which maintain enhancement, efficacy, and consistency of the self. These are social and psychological needs entrenched in organisations and their members.

The core argument of this sub-section is that identity needs of incumbents may have implications for how incumbents approach disruptive innovations. It is asserted that disruptive innovations do not seem to feed identity needs of incumbents, at least initially, which might explain why incumbents are initially uninterested in investing in them. As a start, the table ensuing (Table 4.1) makes a generic comparison of the characteristics of disruptive innovations and identity needs. The comparison of the characteristics of disruptive innovations with organisations’ identity hints at the conceivability that the nature of these offerings may negatively influence preferences for them by incumbents. Of focus are the very inferiority, poor performance and the new attributes, which may challenge those of sustaining innovations. In their initial stages disruptive innovations do seem to stand in stark contrast with an image of high esteem held by the industry leading firms with such labels as well- managed, admirable, emulated, and innovative, among others. Continued effort to innovate sustainably should be in line, for instance, with the self-esteem needs of incumbents, especially if we factor Christensen’s realisation that these organisations are driven to win competitive wars.

Another way to make the same point, especially giving some intricacies on how the points just highlighted may play out, is to present an illustration which takes the form a metaphor built around the three identity needs. The resulting analysis observably points to the identity construction process as likely to be open to growth and stability, rather than the opposite. The aim of the depiction is to link identity construction with features of the theory of disruption, pointing out the potential for identity incongruity to be presented by disruptive innovations.

Characteristics of Disruptive Innovations Identity needs

1. Inferior quality 2. Poor performance 3. New attributes

4. Discontinuity (or interruptive potential impact on ongoing sustaining innovation projects)

1. Enhancement 2. Efficacy 3. Consistency

In the depiction, inflation corresponds with identity construction, in which there is continued availability of a fodder to feed the three identity needs, while deflation corresponds with or more precisely, results in identity incongruence or threat. As efficacy (success of current or sustaining projects) continues to be validated by sustained growth, consistency (e.g. we are a successful, growing and leading firms) will serve as a stopper. A threat to any achieved state of identity will lead to efforts to remove that threat and thus inhibit a downward progression (deflation). That is, (1) the ongoing feeding of the self-enhancement need represents inflation; (2) self-efficacy is represented by the inflate-ability of this balloon; and (3) self-consistency is represented by a stopper or valve. As organisations enact their strategies and achieve outstanding outcomes, which boost their identity and thus reputations, the enhancement need is fulfilled. This fulfilment is thus equivalent to inflating the balloon, but it also validates the efficacy (e.g. well-managed firm) demonstrated by the positive outcomes of actions, or beliefs of successfully executing of strategies. This imagery is in line with the word “construction”, the equivalent term of which could be “building” (e.g. reputation or self- esteem).

The balloon model suggests a different way to look at organisations because in essence, the success of this process constructs an increasingly improving self-esteem, which may possibly develop an amour proper (used here to refer to organisational ego).1 _{A sense of the potential} for losing leadership positions, for instance, cannot exclude certain forms of reputational loss (e.g. lower ranking), which may trigger the motivation to avert this rank. Notable efforts to move up-market when entrants begin to nibble on the lower-end of the market, which means beginning to take market share of incumbents, can be linked to organisational drive to innovate sustainably and stay ahead of current competitors. Further, events such as shrinking market share, revenues and/or rankings as a result of disruptive impact, should threaten the inflation processes as portrayed by the suggested model previously discussed. By the same token, these should threaten the identity or reputational meanings held by organisational members. To consider an organisation a leader in a specific market reflects a form comparison, or ranking, in which its peers are rated lower.

1 _{An interesting alternative is to draw parallels between leadership position and their saliency in respective} markets to a levitating balloon, whose higher levels lends itself to noticeability, or unobstructed constant watch by observers relative to its peers in the market.

A study by Elsbach and Kramer, which cements Weick’s identity construction model, seems especially pertinent to current demonstrations. In the study, the authors investigated the sensemaking processes of organisational members in “top 20” leading business schools and tried to understand how they cope with perceived drop in the rankings. The scholars

demonstrate how, following a drop, organisational members of leading schools engaged in sensemaking processes which constructed new meanings to highlight aspects about their organisational identity not considered in the ranking to uphold their identity “status”.1 _{To the} extent that holding on to identity meanings lead to delays in addressing problems, their study bolsters the insights proposed in the sensemaking perspective about identity construction, and used here as a portrayal of the balloon model. However, and more importantly, for current debates, it highlights that there will likely be an impetus on the part of incumbents to sustain meanings attached to the meanings centred on their leadership positions. The study is also crucial to the point that it shows that meanings related to leadership positions matter to a great degree. Indeed, some authors are taking note that leadership positions are in some cases responsible for the late adoption of emerging innovations.2

Lastly, such an expression as made by one senior manager at Polaroid, a leading instant photography firm, recounting how he, among other organisational members interpreted changes related to an impending disruption driven by digital photography,3 _{also seems useful} here. He queried as follows: “Can we be a down and dirty manufacturer at the same time we're an innovator over here? Can you have two different philosophies running

simultaneously in the company?”4 _{Being “down and dirty” seems to stand in stark contrast} with being “an innovator”, to the extent that the former descriptor points to a perception low- esteemed vis-à-vis the latter, which portrays a certain quality prestige. In the case of Intel, Grove expressed the following: “Intel equaled memories in all of our minds. How could we give up on our identity? How could we exist as a company that was not in the memory business? It was close to being inconceivable.”5 _{This statement is permeated with a sense of} attachment and defeat just as it denotes great uncertainty and confusion. It is deeply soaked in the question, who should we be if we are no longer a memory company, a label which meant

1 _{Elsbach & Kramer (1996)}

2 _{The work of Burgelman and Grove (1996) was previously quoted to indicate how IBM and Microsoft became} victims of their own identity beliefs.

3 _{Gans (2016b, p. 56)}

4 _{Tripsas & Gavetti (2000, p. 1155)} 5 _{Grove (1996, p.90)}

a lot to us?