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. An electronic version of this book is available under a Creative Commons license.
