Associations for Disruptiveness: The Pirate Bay vs. Spotify

Bjorn Remneland Wikhamn; David Knights

doi:10.4067/S0718-27242016000300005

Authors

Bjorn Remneland Wikhamn Department of Business Administration School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg
David Knights Department of Organization, Work and Technology, Lancaster University Management School.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-27242016000300005

Keywords:

Innovation, disruptive technologies, discontinuous innovation, radical innovation, digitalization, translation, Actor Network Theory, music industry, Spotify, The Pirate Bay

Abstract

Most studies on disruptive innovations adopt technology-centric assumptions when explaining how industries are affected by a technology’s creative destruction. This paper argues that the power of a technology lies in how it performatively associates with the cultural and social norms of the wider society. Hence, a technology is not disruptive or sustaining in itself but is potentially a productive outcome of network linkages with other social and material elements. To illustrate this claim, two digital music services will be analyzed, respectively a misfit and a maverick both challenging mainstream providers of music – The Pirate Bay and Spotify – in relation to each other and how they are positioned toward the transformation of the music industry as a whole.

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Author Biographies

Bjorn Remneland Wikhamn, Department of Business Administration School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg

Dr Björn Remneland-Wikhamn is a researcher and senior lecturer in organisational theory and innovation management at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg. His research interests include innovation practices and network organising.

David Knights, Department of Organization, Work and Technology, Lancaster University Management School.

Dr. David Knights is Professor of Organizational Analysis at the Department of Organization, Work and Technology, Lancaster University Management School.

His research interests include: Diversity and Gender Studies, Organizational Change and Innovation, Power and subjectivity, and Ethics, Epistemology and Methodology.