Incumbent inertia upon disruptive change in the airline industry ...

Chair of Strategic Management and Organization
ABSTRACT
In the face of disruptive innovations, incumbent firms frequently encounter substantial rigidity in
business routines. Our article investigates the role of top management teams to overcome this
inertia. Based on a literature review including strategy, organizational and psychological
research fields, we conducted four case studies in the European airline industry and collected
data from qualitative interviews with senior executives. As a result, we find new causal factors
for routine rigidity in four groups, namely knowledge insufficiencies, inadequate self-concept,
inflexibilities and financial concerns. Further, we propose a comprehensive set of top
management team characteristics along individual members, team structure and team process,
which influence the impact of the identified causal factors to ultimately lower routine rigidity.
Our findings uniquely link existing research streams and allow practitioners to better prepare
incumbent firms for future disruptive change.
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