Survival is the reward
Clayton Christensen, on disruptive innovation (from Wikipedia):
Established companies are usually aware of the innovations, but their business environment does not allow them to pursue them when they first arise, because they are not profitable enough. […] Firm’s existing value networks place insufficient value on the disruptive innovation.
Meanwhile, start-up firms inhabit different value networks, at least until the day that their disruptive innovation is able to invade the older value network.
At that time, the established firm in that network can at best only fend off the market share attack with a me-too entry, for which survival is the only reward.
The important part is that incumbents are usually not blind. They can often see the new product, the new behaviour and the new market forming. The problem is that their existing business gives them perfectly rational reasons to ignore it.
That is what makes disruption so uncomfortable. From inside the company, the wrong decision can look disciplined, financially responsible and strategically mature. Then the new value network grows up, crosses over, and the best available response is a defensive copy.
It is hard to read that without thinking of RIM, Dell or HP. By the time the threat is obvious enough to fit the old model, survival may already be the reward.