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Innovation is rapidly becoming democratized.
Users, aided by improvements in computer and communications
technology, increasingly can develop their own new products
and services. These innovating users -- both individuals
and firms -- often freely share their innovations with others,
creating user-innovation communities and a rich intellectual
commons. In Democratizing Innovation, Eric von Hippel
looks closely at this emerging system of user-centered innovation.
He explains why and when users find it profitable to develop
new products and services for themselves, and why it often
pays users to reveal their innovations freely for the use
of all.
The trend toward democratized innovation
can be seen in software and information products -- most
notably in the free and open-source software movement --
and also in physical products. Von Hippel's many examples
of user innovation in action range from surgical equipment
to surfboards to software security features. He shows that
product and service development is concentrated among "lead
users," who are ahead on marketplace trends and whose
innovations are often commercially attractive.
Von Hippel argues that manufacturers should
redesign their innovation processes and that they should
systematically seek out innovations developed by users.
He points to businesses -- the custom semiconductor industry
is one example -- that have learned to assist user-innovators
by providing them with toolkits for developing new products.
User innovation has a positive impact on social welfare,
and von Hippel proposes that government policies, including
R&D subsidies and tax credits, should be realigned to
eliminate biases against it. The goal of a democratized
user-centered innovation system, says von Hippel, is well
worth striving for. An electronic version of this book is
available under a Creative Commons license.
Eric von Hippel is Professor of Management
of Innovation and Head of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is the author
of The Sources of Innovation.
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