Internal Disagreement and Disruptive Technologies

Abstract

This paper models the adoption by established firms of technologies that are internally disruptive in that different parts of an organization stand to lose or gain from adoption. When agents disagree with a decision, they impose costs on the firm. The paper shows that any resistance to change this yields is often accompanied by others aggrieved should change not occur. Thus, the firm likely cannot avoid disagreement costs regardless of whether they adopt the technology or not. In some cases, depending on their ability to impose costs, such firms may be more likely to adopt technologies due to internal disagreement.

Keywords: disruption, innovation, internal disagreement, shading

JEL Classification: O32, M10