The Kronos effect is a term coined by Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu in his 2010 book The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires.
It describes how companies that establish early dominance in a period of disruptive innovation will do everything in their power to maintain their first-mover advantage.
[1][2] The name derives from Greek mythology, in which the Titan Kronos ate his own children in order to preempt the prophecy that one would dethrone him.
Sarnoff went on to pressure the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to restrict the growth of FM in a variety of ways, successfully suppressing its widespread adoption for more than thirty years, and proving, Wu wrote, that "the best antidote to the disruptive power of innovation is overregulation.
"[3] The Kronos effect's role in the technological disruption cycle is to hurt innovation, efficiency, openness and decentralization.