Title: Why have not minimills disrupted the Indian steel incumbents?

Authors: Chakunnath Madhusudan; Ramasamy Panneerselvam

Addresses: Department of Management Studies, School of Management, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry-605014, India ' Department of Management Studies, School of Management, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry-605014, India

Abstract: The theory of disruptive innovation successfully explained how incumbent integrated steel plants in the US were toppled by entrants using the disruptive minimill technology using steel scrap. The post liberalisation Indian steel sector has been dominated by new steelmakers, many of them using latest minimill technologies. Yet these entrants have not been able to dislodge the Indian integrated steel plant incumbents. Our research finds crucial differences between the evolution of the Indian and US Steel sectors. We find that availability of steel scrap is crucial for minimills to become a disruptive technology, which is lacking in India at the moment. We predict the disruption of Indian incumbents if they ignore steel scrap input technologies in the coming years.

Keywords: disruptive innovation; minimills; Indian steel industry; steel; scrap.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2021.113516

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2021 Vol.24 No.3, pp.364 - 384

Received: 03 Jan 2019
Accepted: 09 Jul 2019
Published online: 10 Mar 2021 *

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