Abstract
Innovation is rapidly becoming democratized. Users, aided by improvements in
computer and communications technology, increasingly can develop new products
and services for themselves. 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. Lead user innovation provides a valuable
feedstock for manufacturer innovation, and produces an increase in social
welfare relative to a manufacturer-only innovation system. Freely-revealed
innovations by users form the basis for a user-centric innovation system that is
so robust that it is actually driving manufacturers out of product design in
some fields. The emergence of democratized innovation systems will be disruptive
to the business models of many firms, but I in my view the end result is well
worth striving for.
Related paper: How user innovations become commercial products: A theoretical investigation and case study