10/18/2024
By Amy Yacus
Date: October 31, 2024
Time: 10 to 11:30 a.m.
Location: Pulichino Tong Business Center - PTB 462
Thesis/Dissertation Title: The Adoption and Growth of Disruptive Innovation in Institutionally Complex Mixed Markets
Committee:
Yi Yang (Co-Chair), Ph.D., MEI Department, Manning School of Business, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Sunny Li Sun (Co-Chair), Ph.D., MEI Department, Manning School of Business, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Tao Gao, Ph.D., MEI Department, Manning School of Business, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Jacqueline F. Moloney, Ed.D., School of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Abstract:
Present theories about disruptive innovation don’t adequately explain why higher education has been resistant to disruption from online education. This dissertation seeks to address that gap by identifying mixed markets as unique, institutionally complex contexts that are highly resistant to market disruption. It uses a multiple case study format with six cases across three organization types to explore how leading for-profit, nonprofit, and public higher education organizations have successfully adopted online education as a disruptive innovation. Specifically, this research looks at the actions and logics of successful adopters and their institutional environments to gain a better understanding of the process of disruption in this context. Findings from my case studies and coding analysis, along with a review of the research on disruptive innovation, institutional logics, and mixed markets inform my phenomenon-based theorizing. I offer four theoretical propositions. First, I propose mixed markets are highly resistant to disruption because of the important role they play in serving a public good. Second, for-profit, nonprofit, and public organizations experience different internal and external logic conflicts that challenge how they go about adopting and growing their use of disruptive innovations. Mixed market leaders engage in leader logic blending to dynamically blend and balance the demands of social and market logics with their organizational logics. Third, mixed market organizations vary in their responses to disruption: profit-driven organizations are more likely to encounter external logic conflicts, while mission-driven organizations are more likely to encounter internal logic conflicts. Fourth, I define mixed market organizational viability as the extent to which for-profit, nonprofit, and public organizations meet the social or financial obligations of their charters and conform to the mixed market expectations of government leaders and the public. When considered as a whole, these four propositions form a framework for successful incumbent response to disruption in mixed markets. This research is intended to provide researchers, practitioners, and policymakers with an understanding of the logic conflicts and market dynamics that profit- and mission-driven organizations face when competing against one another in the provision of a public good.