Is Innovation Becoming Less Disruptive? An Inventory of the Literature

Xiangting Wu; Linhui Wu; Michael Park; Erin Leahey; Russell J. Funk

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arXiv · 2602.05140

Is Innovation Becoming Less Disruptive? An Inventory of the Literature

Xiangting Wu·Linhui Wu·Michael Park·Erin Leahey·Russell J. Funk

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Abstract

A growing literature has examined whether innovation is becoming less disruptive, spanning diverse domains and data sources and using a range of methodologies. This paper provides an inventory of 105 studies exploring this question. The evidence is largely consistent in direction. Studies spanning scientific papers, patents, products, legal cases, music, and visual art consistently report evidence of a decline. This pattern holds not only for citation-based measures, but also for text-based approaches, firm displacement rates, product similarity networks, and audio and visual embeddings. The literature has also identified notable exceptions, including rebounds in specific domains and predictable variation across field lifecycles. We catalog each study's data, methods, and findings to provide a resource for researchers and policymakers seeking to understand the current state of the evidence.

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Xiangting Wu, Linhui Wu, Michael Park, Erin Leahey, Russell J. Funk. 2026-02-04. Is Innovation Becoming Less Disruptive? An Inventory of the Literature. https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.05140

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