User innovation

User innovation refers to innovation by intermediate users (e.g. user firms) or consumer users (individual end-users or user communities), rather than by suppliers (producers or manufacturers).[1] This is a concept closely aligned to co-design and co-creation, and has been proven to result in more innovative solutions than traditional consultation methodologies.[2]

Eric von Hippel[3] and others[4][5][6] observed that many products and services are actually developed or at least refined, by users, at the site of implementation and use. These ideas are then moved back into the supply network. This is because products are developed to meet the widest possible need; when individual users face problems that the majority of consumers do not, they have no choice but to develop their own modifications to existing products, or entirely new products, to solve their issues. Often, user innovators will share their ideas with manufacturers in hopes of having them produce the product, a process called free revealing. However, user innovators also generate their own firms to commercialize their innovations and generate new markets, a process called "consumer-led market emergence." For example, research on how users innovated in multiple boardsports shows that some users capitalized on their innovations, founding firms in sports that became global markets.[7]

Based on research on the evolution of Internet technologies and open source software Ilkka Tuomi (Tuomi 2002) further highlighted the point that users are fundamentally social. User innovation, therefore, is also socially and socio-technically distributed innovation. According to Tuomi,[8] key uses are often unintended uses invented by user communities that reinterpret and reinvent the meaning of emerging technological opportunities.

The existence of user innovation, for example, by users of industrial robots, rather than the manufacturers of robots (Fleck 1988) is a core part of the argument against the Linear Innovation Model, i.e. innovation comes from research and development, is then marketed and 'diffuses' to end-users. Instead innovation is a non-linear process involving innovations at all stages.[9]

  1. ^ Bogers, M.; Afuah, A.; Bastian, B. (2010), "Users as innovators: A review, critique, and future research directions", Journal of Management, 36 (4): 857–875.
  2. ^ Mitchell, Val; Ross, Tracy; Sims, Ruth; Parker, Christopher J. (2015). "Empirical investigation of the impact of using co-design methods when generating proposals for sustainable travel solutions". CoDesign. 12 (4): 205–220. doi:10.1080/15710882.2015.1091894.
  3. ^ von Hippel, E. (1986). Lead Users: A Source of Novel Product Concepts. Management Science, 32(7), 791-805. doi:10.1287/mnsc.32.7.791
  4. ^ Morrison, Pamela D.; Roberts, John H.; von Hippel, Eric (2000-12-01). "Determinants of User Innovation and Innovation Sharing in a Local Market". Management Science. 46 (12): 1513–1527. doi:10.1287/mnsc.46.12.1513.12076. hdl:1721.1/127231. ISSN 0025-1909. S2CID 13933755.
  5. ^ Nambisan, Satish; Agarwal, Ritu; Tanniru, Mohan (September 1999). "Organizational Mechanisms for Enhancing User Innovation in Information Technology". MIS Quarterly. 23 (3): 365. doi:10.2307/249468. JSTOR 249468.
  6. ^ Berthon, Pierre R.; Pitt, Leyland F.; McCarthy, Ian; Kates, Steven M. (2007-01-01). "When customers get clever: Managerial approaches to dealing with creative consumers". Business Horizons. 50 (1): 39–47. doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2006.05.005. ISSN 0007-6813.
  7. ^ Diaz Ruiz, Carlos; Makkar, Marian (January 1, 2021). "Market bifurcations in board sports: How consumers shape markets through boundary work". Journal of Business Research. 122: 38–50. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.08.039. S2CID 224993317 – via ScienceDirect.
  8. ^ Tuomi, I: Networks of Innovation, chapter 2. Oxford University Press, 2002.
  9. ^ Williams, Robin; Edge, David (September 1996). "The social shaping of technology" (PDF). Research Policy. 25 (6): 865–899. doi:10.1016/0048-7333(96)00885-2. S2CID 17412694.