**1. Introduction**

There is an abundance of literature on technological innovation, and it is not the intention to give a comprehensive overview of the vast body of knowledge in this field. What, however, is essential is to expose readers to the different types of innovation and how innovation can be used to create firm competitive advantages. From a firm's perspective, firms are faced with significant change, primarily when operating in an environment subject to high volatility, uncertainty change and ambiguity (VUCA). Others like [1–3] also refer to this as how the firms co-exist in such an environment and refer to this as the firm's organizational and environmental evolution (OEE). Firms need to continually innovate to stay ahead of the competition. From neo-Schumpeterian economic growth theory, economic growth arises from

competition among firms. The development of new technology and innovation has increased rapidly over the last few decades giving rise to intense competition [4]. This is because innovation creates opportunities to improve productivity, reduce waste and thus improve competitive advantages [1]. Firms react to changing environments through innovation [5]. However, many firms have failed to seize innovation opportunities [6]. Innovations introduce change, and not all firms are able to adapt to these changes. Firms that introduce innovations instigate change, and this disrupts the status quo. Firms that initiate innovation are referred to as disrupters because the firm penetrates the market and introduces new technological and or non-technological innovations, which other firms (competitors) must react to. These new innovations disrupt the market. Disruption tends to create new markets, which will eventually capture existing markets. Disruptive technological innovations cause a change in either of the following two areas: technological and non-technological innovation.

Technological innovation is of such a nature that it is based on fundamental new and different technological solutions, and these technologies revolutionize the existing marketplace, fundamentally giving the firm competitive advantages as the new technological innovations place other firms at a disadvantage. This is what is referred to as product innovation, also called new product development (NPD). Another way that a firm creates disruption is when the firm uses novel combinations of existing technological innovations to create new technological shifts in the market, which here again, through the combination of existing technologies, novel technological innovation is created, giving the firm the ability to create competitive advantages putting other firms (competitors) at a disadvantage. The firm that introduces the new technological innovations that is, the firm which creates new markets through these technological innovations, is referred to as a disruptor, while the firms that are being affected by these changes are being disrupted. For firms to stay ahead of the game, they need to be disruptors creating new technological innovations or new markets, which result in competitive advantages for themselves.

**Figure 1** gives a graphical representation of how innovation can be introduced. Disruption occurs in two ways either a new technological innovation is introduced in an existing market, causing technology disruption; this is also referred to as product (component) or architectural innovation. In cases when a new market is created with existing technology, in this case, the market is disrupted; this is also referred to as sustaining innovation where the market is disrupted. Both these changes occur independently of each other they are mutually exclusive. In situations where firms introduce new and emerging technologies while, at the same time, they create new markets, this is referred to as radical innovation. In radical innovation, two things occur at the same time new technological innovations are introduced, and new markets are created simultaneously. When firms create technological innovations through using existing technologies in existing markets, this is referred to as evolutionary or incremental innovation. Innovation can either be technological or non-technological. Where technological innovation focuses on products, and non-technological innovation focuses on innovation initiatives outside of products, for example, process innovation, organizational innovation, or service innovation. **Table 1** gives some examples of the different types of innovation.

Further to this, these technological innovations can either be competence-enhancing or competence-destroying. Competence-enhancing is when new and emerging technologies enhance existing competencies and capabilities, and competencedestroying is when new and emerging technologies fundamentally destroy existing competencies and capabilities, and the firm must develop new competencies and
