Although critiqued within academic and corporate circles for two decades, Christensen’s model of disruptive innovation has proven to have staying power in analyzing innovation dynamics across multiple industries, such as retail and information technology industries. While much of the pace and modality of innovation in these industries adheres broadly to the rubric enumerated by Christensen, investment and R&D strategies in the emergent quantum computing industry appear to be following a slightly different path. This study is an exploratory study of the quantum computing research industry, from the perspective of innovation development patterns.
Although critiqued within academic and corporate circles for two decades, Christensen’s model of disruptive innovation has proven to have staying power in analyzing innovation dynamics across multiple industries, such as retail and information technology industries. While much of the pace and modality of innovation in these industries adheres broadly to the rubric enumerated by Christensen, investment and R&D strategies in the emergent quantum computing industry appear to be following a slightly different path. This study is an exploratory study of the quantum computing research industry, from the perspective of innovation development patterns.
Quantum computing represents a revolutionary leap in computational capability, promising exponential speedups for certain classes of problems. While its technical aspects have been widely studied, its impact on entrepreneurship and business innovation is still emerging as a critical research area. This paper explores how quantum technologies enable new entrepreneurial ventures, disrupt existing business models, and pose ethical challenges. We synthesize current research from quantum information science, innovation theory, and business strategy to present a comprehensive overview. The paper identifies key opportunities for startups, analyzes the transformative effects across sectors, and discusses socio-ethical considerations, providing direction for future research and policy.
Quantum technology has garnered considerable attention for its transformative potential across various industries since the early 2000s, precipitating a surge in quantum start-ups and substantial investments worldwide. However, comprehensive research on quantum technology in industries, particularly start-ups in the quantum field, remains limited. This study analyzes a dataset of 1,200 quantum start-ups from 40 countries, specifically focusing on 430 notable active start-ups. The analysis provides a thorough perspective on the industry’s progress, including trends in growth, geographical distribution, industry categorization, and investment patterns. The study categorizes start-ups into five domains: quantum computing, communication, sensing, hardware, and software. The analysis further captures the progress made by ten prominent quantum start-ups, six major technology companies, and quantum consortia regarding their technological innovations and strategic partnerships. We provide a comparative analysis of prior research to identify current conditions and future implications validated by notable studies, focusing on key parameters such as dataset scope, geographical distribution, growth trends, industry categorization, taxonomy, main interests in quantum fields, key players, and ecosystem identification. This approach underscores the dynamic growth of the quantum industry, which will drive future advancements.
Quantum computing is emerging as a transformative general-purpose technology with the potential to redefine entrepreneurial innovation across data-intensive and optimization-driven industries. By exploiting quantum mechanical principles such as superposition, entanglement, and quantum parallelism, quantum computers offer new computational capabilities that may surpass classical systems in solving complex problems. This paper examines quantum computing as a catalyst for entrepreneurial innovation, focusing on the strategic opportunities, market disruptions, and ethical challenges associated with quantum-enabled business models in finance, supply chain optimization, and healthcare startups. Through a cross-sectoral analysis, the study explores how startups can leverage hybrid quantum–classical approaches to accelerate decision-making, enhance predictive accuracy, and unlock novel value propositions. At the same time, it addresses critical concerns related to technological uncertainty, unequal access, data security, and responsible innovation. The paper argues that while quantum computing presents significant disruptive potential, its sustainable integration into entrepreneurial ecosystems requires strategic foresight and ethical governance frameworks alongside technological adoption.
Quantum computing is a vital research field in science and technology. One of the fundamental questions hardly known is how quantum computing research is developing to support scientific advances and the evolution of path-breaking technologies for economic, industrial, and social change. This study confronts the question here by applying methods of computational scientometrics for publication analyses to explain the structure and evolution of quantum computing research and technologies over a 30-year period. Results reveal that the evolution of quantum computing from 1990 to 2020 has a considerable average increase of connectivity in the network (growth of degree centrality measure), a moderate increase of the average influence of nodes on the flow between nodes (little growth of betweenness centrality measure), and a little reduction of the easiest access of each node to all other nodes (closeness centrality measure). This evolutionary dynamics is due to the increase in size and complexity of the network in quantum computing research over time. This study also suggests that the network of quantum computing has a transition from hardware to software research that supports accelerated evolution of technological pathways in quantum image processing, quantum machine learning, and quantum sensors. Theoretical implications of this study show the morphological evolution of the network in quantum computing from a symmetric to an asymmetric shape driven by new inter-related research fields and emerging technological trajectories. Findings here suggest best practices of innovation management based on R&D investments in new technological directions of quantum computing having a high potential for growth and impact in science and markets.
Quantum computing is a novel method of computation that uses the principles of quantum mechanics to handle highly challenging situations in a very short amount of time. Quantum technology has the ability to significantly impact worldwide advancement, even prior to the complete deployment of quantum machines. Quantum technology for communication, computation, and sensors has the capacity to revolutionise many industries, and several nations are making investments in this promising field. This includes research investments from both the public and commercial sectors. This article delves into the recent quantum computing advancements and the potential opportunities made possible by quantum technology in the next few decades. We outline a vision and scientific innovation for embracing the quantum age, as well as explore the pioneering applications of quantum computing. We also highlight software tools and platforms for quantum programming to unlock the power of computing and revolutionize the world. Finally, we identify the groundbreaking impacts of quantum computing on next-generation research and discuss the benefits of unleashing its revolutionary capabilities.
This study develops a technology analysis to detect technological trajectories in quantum computing that can lay the foundation of a quantum industry. Study design considers data of 10,089 scientific products in ‘quantum computing’ over 1989–2020 period and 19,266 scientific products in ‘quantum computer’ over 1967–2020 period to cover all scientific production in this research field; a complementary analysis considers 8,505 patents over 1977–2020 in ‘quantum computing’ and 9,792 patents in ‘quantum computer’ over 1985–2020 period. Models of technological evolution applied here show main technological trajectories in quantum computing and computer and their rates of growth that suggest path-breaking directions in quantum technology, such as quantum optics, quantum information, quantum algorithms, quantum entanglement, quantum communication and quantum cryptography. Findings here provide information to extend the knowledge in the evolution of quantum computing and computers to support the management of these new technologies and R&D investments towards innovations generating industrial, economic and social change.