Incentives and processes used to keep companies focused on their main customers can be a major cause for missing a new technologies or emerging markets.

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BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Consider the statement and its implications about incentives and processes within firms. 
Option 1 (True): The idea here is that many organizations allocate resources, attention, and decision-making authority to satisfy their core or most profitable customers. This tight alignment with current high-margin needs can create an opportunity trap, where investments in new technologies or emerging markets are deprioritized because they don’t immediately serve the main customer base or deliver near-term returns. As a result, resources get funneled into sustaining innovations for existing clients rather than exploring disruptive or future-oriented opportunities. This line of thinking echoes concepts from the resource allocation and disruptor literature, which emphasizes how governance structures, incentive systems, and project portfolio choices bias firms toward what is already known and valued by key customers. In short, incentives and processes designed to protect the status quo can slow or prevent attention to new tech and new markets. 
Option 2 (False): If one argues against the statement, they might note that not all incentives for core customers inevitably lead to missed opportunities. Some firms successfully balance sustaining work for main customers with separate incubation efforts, or they redesign incentive schemes to encourage exploration. Others point out that external signals, technological feasibility, or competitive dynamics are equally or more influential in causing missed opportunities, rather than internal incentives alone. It’s also plausible that a firm’s ability to recognize and cultivate adjacent markets hinges on leadership, culture, and organizational structure beyond just incentives for core customers. Therefore, while incentives can contribute to missing new technologies or markets, claiming they are always the major cause would overlook these other contributing factors. 
Overall, the reasoning highlights how core-customer-focused incentives can bias resource allocation toward existing revenues, potentially at the expense of exploring disruptive technologies or emerging markets, but there are reasonable counterarguments where this is not the sole or primary cause.

Incentives and processes used to keep companies focused on their main customers can be a major cause for missing a new technologies or emerging markets.

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