Marshall McLuhan's theory of entrepreneurship
“The crossing or hybridizations of the media release great new force and energy as by fission or fusion…” (1964:48).
Marshall McLuhan was a Canadian academic and celebrity who famously coined the phrase “the medium is the message” back in the 1960s to express his thesis about the effect of new technologies (extensions of ourselves) on culture and society.
He and his son are known together for the McLuhan Tetrad, which suggests that careful analysis of the extensions, amputations, retrievals, and reversals inherent in innovations help to reveal their effects.
The Medium is the Message
At a time when critics railed against sex, violence, and blasphemy on vacuum tube televisions, McLuhan claimed that the content of television was irrelevant. He argued that it is the medium of television that really changes us by creating new audio/visual tribes and seating us passively in front of the tube. New environments!
The implication of McLuhan’s theory is that new technologies shape environments and perceptions by making accessible new dimensions of time and space. My shirt is an extension of my skin, my car is an extension of my legs, and my computer is an extension of my central nervous system.
To help us understand the difference between the medium and the message, he gave the example of the light bulb. It is a medium devoid of any content (or message), yet it creates an environment by its mere presence: illuminating the dark, extending our ability to make use of time and space, and increasing our productivity. The light-bulb retrieves the day during the night; it reverses into insomnia. It extends our eyes, while it amputates the candle.
Hot vs. Cold Innovations
Marshall McLuhan is known for many things, but it is perhaps his concepts of “cold” and “hot” innovations that are most relevant to entrepreneurship scholars.
Entrepreneurs exist in ecosystems with incumbent organizations and therefore should be selective about the innovations they pursue. The core idea here is that:
- Hot Innovations: Improvements along existing dimensions (for incumbents).
- Cold Innovations: New combinations (for new entrants).
This is very similar to Tushman and Anderson (1986), who argue that incumbents/entrants have the advantage with competence enhancing/destroying innovations. It is also similar to disruptive innovation theory's distinction between disruptive and sustaining innovation.
1. Hot Innovations (High Definition)
Hot innovations increase performance along an existing dimension. McLuhan relates hot innovations to the word "hot," used to express an attachment to local and popular cultures. By increasing stimulus over one sense, a deeper connection to the environment created by the technology is achieved.
The 3D movie is a great example of this: it adds more stimuli over the visual sense while not affecting any of the other senses. With the 3D movie, this idea is taken to the extreme, where the visuals are so dense that one must continually choose where to focus attention.
At the extreme, heating up a technology makes it hypnotic—
