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Prof.
Eric von Hippel Eric von Hippel is Professor and Head of the Technological Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is a graduate of Harvard College (BA), MIT (MS) and Carnegie Mellon University (PhD). His research is focused on the sources of and economics of innovation. |
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Democratising Innovation Innovation is rapidly becoming democratized. Users, aided by improvements in computer and communications technology, increasingly can develop their own new products and services. User innovation, the data show, is strongly concentrated among "lead users." These lead users--both individuals and firms--often freely share their innovations with others, creating user-innovation communities and a rich intellectual commons. The trend toward democratized innovation is visible both in information products like software and also in physical products. User innovation provides a valuable feedstock for manufacturer innovation. It also produces an increase in social welfare relative to a manufacturer-only innovation system. |
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