The process of user-centered innovation: how it can benefit both users
and manufacturers and how its emergence will bring changes in business
models and in public policy.
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--but 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.
