These are the emerging technologies that offer the opportunities of changing technology cores of existing products, for offering better substitutions. This change in technology core leads to the formation of Creative waves of destruction. If creative waves of destruction succeed in disrupting incumbent firms, the technologies powering those waves are called Disruptive technologies. For example, the Transistor and the Electronic image sensor are disruptive technologies.
However, all technologies driving creative waves of destruction are not disruptive technologies. The effect of the uprising of substitutions determines whether a technology is disruptive or not. For example, hard disk drive technology fuelled creative waves in computer storage causing destruction to drum memory. but it failed to disrupt incumbent IBM leading drum memory business, as IBM itself was driving the creative waves of destruction for offering better substitution to drum memory.