Democratizing innovation /
Eric von Hippel.
- 1 online resource (216 pages) : illustrations
Includes bibliographical references (p. [183]-195) and index.
Introduction and overview -- Development of products by lead users -- Why many users want custom products -- Users' innovate-or-buy decisions -- Users' low-cost innovation niches -- Why users often freely reveal their innovations -- Innovation communities -- Adapting policy to user innovation -- Democratizing innovation -- Application: searching for lead user innovations -- Application: toolkits for user innovation and custom design -- Linking user innovation to other phenomena and fields.
Users, aided by improvements in computer and communications technology, increasingly can develop their own new products and services. This title looks closely at this emerging system of user- centred innovation. It argues that manufacturers should redesign their innovation processes and systematically seek out innovations developed by users. Hippel 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.
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Technological innovations--Economic aspects. Diffusion of innovations. Democracy.