Business development in the early stages of commercializing disruptive innovation: considering the implications of Moore's life cycle model and Christensen's model of disruptive innovation
This article discusses business development (BD) as an activity different from selling or key account management, intended to find and develop new revenue opportunities. The case is made that BD's role is particularly important in the commercialization of disruptive innovations innovations that disrupt the current infrastructure of market structure of an industry. The authors present the results of a comparison of two popular conceptual models of the commercialization of disruptive innovation: Moore's technology adoption life cycle (TALC) and Christensen's model of disruptive innovation (MDI) This comparison is limited to the early part of each model, covering the period from the beginning of commercialization to the point at which rapid growth in sales is established. Each model draws implications for marketing actions to expand beyond first customers and grow sales. However, the two models taken together make the implications for marketing actions unfeasible in some way. This article raises several research questions and considerations for methodology, to better understand these commercialization processes. The article also suggests that "BD" exploratory customer contact to find, learn about, and address opportunities is a way to overcome problems that emerge from the comparison of the models.