Democratizing Innovation / Eric von Hippel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hippel, Eric von.

Contributor:

Books24x7, Inc.

Series:

Humanities Open Book.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Democracy.

Diffusion of innovations.

Technological innovations--Economic aspects.

Technological innovations.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 204 pages) : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : MIT Press, 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Notes:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

Includes bibliographical references (pages [183]-195) and index.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode

Digitized and made available by: Books24x7.com.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780262250177

0262250179

9781628201307

1628201304

9780262720472

0262720477

OCLC:

1053443663

Access Restriction:

Open access Unrestricted online access