Technology Speciation (Updated 5/31/2009, Original 1/26/2009 by TQM Doctor)
Adner and Levinthal’s (2000) concept of technology speciation is based on the evolutionary biology concepts of punctuated equilibrium idealized by Stephen Gould and Niles Eldridge. One of the underlying ideas of either concept is that things (e.g., species and technology) stay the same unless there is an external change agent (i.e., ice age or emerging technology). The associated idea is that internal changes in either a species or technology take drastically different paths based on the demands of different environments. Therefore, technology speciation is most noticeable when existing technologies migrate to new environments just as when existing species migrate to new climates.
When we think of moving from the old system and ideas to the new, we are closely described the process that Kuhn shared in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). I specifically refer to change resistance. Kuhn coined the new concept of paradigm shift to describe a scientific revolution, which is analogous to punctuated equilibrium (Adner & Levinthal, 2000). Kuhn was describing a process of social change that overlaid and strongly influenced both the infrequent scientific leaps and status quo between those leaps. Even though Kuhn was a scientific philosopher, his concepts have proven to be readily applicable to most other social change situations.
Reference
Adner, R., & Levinthal, D. A. (2000). Chapter 3: Technology speciation and the path of emerging technologies. In G. S. Day & P. J. H. Schoemaker (Eds.), Wharton on managing emerging technologies (pp. 57-74). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Kuhn, T. S. (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions (3rd ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.