Technological evolution and the 'construction' of dominant designs in the imaging industry

All industries occasionally experience technological shocks or 'discontinuities.' These discontinuities may be competence-enhancing or competence-destroying. Competence-destroying discontinuities threaten to render existing capabilities obsolete and lead to 'eras of ferment' in which the new technology competes with the old one. At the same time, several designs within the new technology struggle for dominance. Managers faced with such a situation need to make several important decisions, perhaps the most important of which involve the selection of technologies to adopt or develop. Existing competencies and market positions provide strong constraints on the objective of meeting evolving customer expectations. The decisions are expensive and fraught with risks. Naturally, a better understanding of how technologies tend to evolve and why particular designs become dominant, while others, equally plausible ones, do not, would help managers make more informed decisions and avoid costly mistakes or even the prospect of lock-out.This primary aim of this dissertation was the development of a better theoretical understanding of this complex process. Relying primarily on archival data, narratives were constructed around four cases of radical technology shifts in the photographic industry. When woven with existing theoretical insights, these narratives yielded a new perspective on technology dominance. It proposes that contrary to the popular perception that customers eventually adopt technologies that meet their needs 'better,' the success or failure of a new technology is dependent on the extent to which its proponent can build it into the emerging institutional context. This involves opening the design up to embody the interests of key stakeholders as well as structuring the field. At the same time associations and linkages are created between the technology and existing structures. "Enrolling" institutions in this manner stabilizes the nascent technology, reducing its disruptiveness and creating positive externalities around it. How long the design stays dominant depends upon its position in the industry architecture (Christensen, 1997). If it is positioned as an obligatory passage point (Latour, 1987), it is likely to stay dominant for much longer than if it is simply the foremost technological solution to the central problem