ABSTRACT
The lessons of business history have taught us that there is no such thing as a static market. There are no guarantees of continued business success for companies regardless of the eld of endeavor. Schumpeter ( 1942 ) introduced the principle of creative destruction as a way to describe the disruptive process that accompanies the work of the entrepreneur and the consequences of innovation. 1 In time, companies that once revolutionized and dominated select markets give way to rivals who are able to introduce improved product designs, offer substitute products and services, and/or lower manufacturing costs. The resulting outcome of creative destruction can be signi cant including the failure to preserve market leadership, the discontinuation of a once highly successful product line or in the worse case scenario-business failure itself.
