I'd thought of adding a few cases in which disruption does or has happened.
Changing regulatory environments is one. Tobacco, freon, lead paint, asbestos, and numerous other concerns are lo longer with us, or are vastly diminished.
Changing fundamental technologies. Vacuum tube to transistor, transistor to IC. This is a classic Christensian Innovator's Dilemma: do I cannibalise my own existing product base, or wait for someone else to come along and do it for me? To an extent, RCA lost out as television and radio became electronic and flat.
Labour outsourcing is another major driver, especially in labour-intensive activities. So long as the product can be moved, odds are good that the manufacture of it will be as well. Textiles, appliance manufacturing, auto manufacturing, electronics manufacturing (RCA again), and more.
Patent expiry. RCA was itself formed as or in conjunction with a government-mandated patent pooling, one of several such instances.
Reaching the end-run of some fundamental technological capability. Steelmaking, xerography, film-based imaging, instant film-based imaging, telegraphy, various other chemical-based processes, a whole slew of 1960s "-onics" and "-tron" firms, etc., have their day in the sun and then fade. Finding some service or capability and continuing to serve that by some ongoing set of means seems to be more durable.
Long and slow carve-outs from underneath. Television and Internet are finishing the eviceration of print news which began in the 1950s. Television and radio are themselves being undermined by packet-switched, on-demand, streaming, and App-based alternatives. Lower cost and greater flexibility or ease of use (even for a manifestly worse product or experience) very often (though not always) wins. Getting hung up on quality is generally a Bad Move.
Social, economic, political, and cultural changes can drive major shifts. Wars have been known to markedly delimit "before" and "after" phases, likewise economic turmoil. That the two not infrequently go hand in hand doesn't soften the impact but amplifies it.
By mention in Google's Ngram database, RCA hit its peak about 1982. That corresponds to a few of the trends I've described: the 1980s recession, the Reagan Revolution, the beginning of mass-consumer microchip-based electronics (if not computers), a switch from broadcast to cable as a predominant television transmission mode, and the growing dominance of Japan, with lower labour costs and higher quality reputations, especially from Sony, JVC, Panasonic, and other brands, which were competing on their own home turf and with the benefit of the Japanese focus on a active and deliberate government roles in economic and business policy and activity.
I didn't even realise that the company went defunct (acquired by GE) in 1986.
Changing regulatory environments is one. Tobacco, freon, lead paint, asbestos, and numerous other concerns are lo longer with us, or are vastly diminished.
Changing fundamental technologies. Vacuum tube to transistor, transistor to IC. This is a classic Christensian Innovator's Dilemma: do I cannibalise my own existing product base, or wait for someone else to come along and do it for me? To an extent, RCA lost out as television and radio became electronic and flat.
Labour outsourcing is another major driver, especially in labour-intensive activities. So long as the product can be moved, odds are good that the manufacture of it will be as well. Textiles, appliance manufacturing, auto manufacturing, electronics manufacturing (RCA again), and more.
Patent expiry. RCA was itself formed as or in conjunction with a government-mandated patent pooling, one of several such instances.
Reaching the end-run of some fundamental technological capability. Steelmaking, xerography, film-based imaging, instant film-based imaging, telegraphy, various other chemical-based processes, a whole slew of 1960s "-onics" and "-tron" firms, etc., have their day in the sun and then fade. Finding some service or capability and continuing to serve that by some ongoing set of means seems to be more durable.
Long and slow carve-outs from underneath. Television and Internet are finishing the eviceration of print news which began in the 1950s. Television and radio are themselves being undermined by packet-switched, on-demand, streaming, and App-based alternatives. Lower cost and greater flexibility or ease of use (even for a manifestly worse product or experience) very often (though not always) wins. Getting hung up on quality is generally a Bad Move.
Social, economic, political, and cultural changes can drive major shifts. Wars have been known to markedly delimit "before" and "after" phases, likewise economic turmoil. That the two not infrequently go hand in hand doesn't soften the impact but amplifies it.
By mention in Google's Ngram database, RCA hit its peak about 1982. That corresponds to a few of the trends I've described: the 1980s recession, the Reagan Revolution, the beginning of mass-consumer microchip-based electronics (if not computers), a switch from broadcast to cable as a predominant television transmission mode, and the growing dominance of Japan, with lower labour costs and higher quality reputations, especially from Sony, JVC, Panasonic, and other brands, which were competing on their own home turf and with the benefit of the Japanese focus on a active and deliberate government roles in economic and business policy and activity.
I didn't even realise that the company went defunct (acquired by GE) in 1986.
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=RCA&year_start...
(Now to do some reading on the fall of RCA.)