A donor gave Major Boston Academic Medical Center (MBAMC) a large bequest to further its mission. Stakeholders were asked to come up with innovative proposals, which were narrowed down to two that were submitted to MBAMC’s board. One proposed to use the funds to expand the existing tertiary services into more highly specialized quaternary services that would extend the “boundaries of its clinical excellence.” The other created a unique nursing fellowship that would train nurses to provide services currently given by physicians, but at a much lower cost. After due deliberation the board chose the first option and all the donation was applied toward increasing the sophistication of MBAMC’s services (Christensen et al. 2006).

Questions

1. Which proposal was a sustaining and which a disruptive innovation?

2. Why would an organization choose a sustaining innovation over a disruptive innovation?

3. Read the article the case comes from and discuss the impact disruptive innovation has on the social structure.