From creative destruction to creative appropriation: A comprehensive framework

Jack Linzhou Xing and Naubahar Sharif

Research Policy, 2020, vol. 49, issue 7

Abstract: This paper introduces a conceptual modification of Schumpeter's concept of creative destruction. Identifying a Kuhnian anomaly in a case of creative destruction in the ‘new economy’, we analyze a case study of the Chinese e-hailing firm DiDi Chuxing to show that this firm used a strategy we term ‘creative appropriation’, whereby a new firm utilizes incumbent firms’ complementary assets but without cooperating with the incumbent, to disrupt a market. This exploitation of complementary assets is based on recombining prevailing technological infrastructure(s) as well as flexible business models that facilitate open innovation. Employing documentary analysis, participant-observation, face-to-face interviews with informants, and a quantitative survey, the study finds that DiDi deployed its e-hailing app to disrupt the taxi market in Xi'an, China (as it did elsewhere in China) as a means of creative destruction, appropriating human-resource-based complementary assets (social and personal reputations, tacit knowledge, and connections) of taxi companies in Xi'an, first to dominate e-hailing in the taxi industry and then to destroy that industry by shifting its focus to private cars.

Keywords: Creative destruction; Kuhnian anomaly; E-hailing; Creative appropriation; Complementary assets; Disruption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733320301384
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:respol:v:49:y:2020:i:7:s0048733320301384

DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2020.104060

Access Statistics for this article

Research Policy is currently edited by Anna Bergek, PhD, Alex Coad, PhD, Maryann Feldman, Elisa Giuliani, Adam B. Jaffe, Martin Kenney, Keun Lee, PhD, Ben Martin, MA, MSc, Kazuyuki Motohashi, Paul Nightingale, Ammon Salter, Maria Savona, Reinhilde Veugelers and John Walsh

More articles in Research Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().