Managing systemic and disruptive innovation: Lessons from the Renault Zero Emission Initiative

Some innovations are challenging to deploy because they destabilize existing technologies and value chains (systemic) as well as traditional customer preferences (disruptive). The existing literature does not provide clear guidance as to effective management methods for systemic and disruptive innov- ations (SDIs). We build on a unique set of in-depth data, based on a 7-year participating observation of an ambitious Renault program, targeting the development and scale-up of four electric vehicles. We propose three management levers for SDI scale-up: autonomous spanning units, a portfolio of viable local systems, and concurrent platform management.