Focusing on consumers helps us understand more deeply whether startups will succeed or fail at stealing customers from incumbents in existing markets. Simply because a disruptor can decouple the stages in a consumer’s value chain does not mean consumers will rush to substitute the disruptor for the decoupled incumbent. Think of customer activities as train cars. Integration forces operating in consumers’ minds cause the cars to become connected with one another. Specialization forces cause them to break apart. For decoupling to occur, the specialization forces must outweigh the integration
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