USER-DRIVEN INNOVATION

USER-DRIVEN INNOVATION

1. User innovations thus a very direct benefit for the innovator, such as making things easier, more practical, or safer.

   • FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
     • We observe that many forms react to this trend and frequently use and experiment with ways of benefiting from user innovatiness.
       • Over time, we predict, producers will increasingly cede desin¿gn to consumers and seek to establish advantageous relationships with them via community support and/or the provision of toolkits to assist consumer innovators

2. PARADIGM SHIFT

   • The division of labour, industrialization, and increasing complexity of technology and production processes, however, led to firms with specialized R&D departments and professional innovation functions.
     • The finding that user innovation is a frequent behavior doesn't neccesarily mean that it bears importance. Then the scholars made a study and with these studies they built a first prototype of each of these innovations.
       • Developments in ICT also resulted in the evolution of many tools that assit and support the individual user to actively convert the idea into a product. Personal computers and both general purpose and specialized software for writng texts, doing calculations, creating designs, and assembling machinery are cheap and easy to handle today and thus greatly decrease the costs of user innovations

3. THEORETICAL EXPLANATIONS

   • Which users innovate and why?
     • The 'high expected benefits' component of the lead user definition was derived from research on the economics of innovation. Studies of industrial product and process innovations have shown that the greater benefit an entity expects to obtain for a required innovation, the greater that entity's investment in obtaining a solution
       • The second component of the lead user definition, namely being ahead of an important marketplace trend, was included because of its expected impact on the commercial attractiveness of innovations develped by users residing at that location in a marketplace. Note that these components of thelead user definition are conceptually independent. They stem from different areas of literature, and they serve different functions in lead user theory.
         • Component (a) of the lead user definition was therefore intended to serve as an indicator of innovation likelihood. Component (b) of the lead user definition therefore indicates the commercial attractiveness of an innovation created by such a user.
   • How do users innovate?
     • Innovative individual users purposefully seek other users in order to complement their capabilities, that is, exchange ideas and experiences, discuss possible solutions, and further refine intermediate solutions. As a result user innovators often organize into communites
   • Why do users often reveal freely their innovations?
     • This means that the innovator gives proprietary information on the functioning and construction of the innovation openly to others at no cost
       • Being known for a helpful innovation increases a user's reputation.
         • By freely giving away the innovation, the innovator usually increases allows for network effects, the innovator directly profits from a broader user base
           • Sometimes, an adopting manufacturer may be able to produce the innovation and sell it to a price lower than users in-house production costs
             • Communities may also have established a 'norm of sharing' with regard to giving assistance to and freely revealing the outcome of innovation projects

4. METHODS FOR EXPLOITING USER INNOVATINESS

   • The lead user method
     • Phase 1: In the beginning during the starting phase, objectives are defined and a cross-functional team is set up
       • Phase 2: Identification of major needs and trends. In the second phase, the three to five most important trends are identified. 'Trends' are those dimensions in which lead users are far ahead of the mass market
         • Phase 3: Identification of lead users. The third phase involves a broad search for individuals who are far ahead regard to the trends identifies and have high personal benefits innovations. In the later approach, researchers start with a few users and ask them who has especially high needs and is leading a trend
           • Phase 4: The lead user workshop. Once the lead users have been identified they are invited to a two-or three-day workshop in which company members from different functional areas participate. At these workshops, techniques such as brainstorming, group discussions, and so on are used to capitalize on the creativity of the participants
   • Toolkits for user innovation and design
     • A different method building on user creativity is to outsource individual product design to costumers. If people are creative and dissatisfied with standard offerings, why not provide them with equipment that decreases the individual users' costs and allows the producer to do what it is best at, namely producing?
       • Consumers can derive considerable value form using toolkits. Franke and Pller (2004) found that consumers' willingness-to-pay is twice as high for a self-desinged watch than for the bestselling standard watches of the same objective quality. This dramtic value increase has been comfirmed in a number of studies in he product areas
   • Crowdsourcing
     • The value of crowdsourcing comes from the fact that 'crowds' usually consist of many contributors with a wider range of skill sets, perspectives on the problem, and solution heuristics than company insiders possess
       • Such crowds often exhibit 'wisdom' superior to the far smaller number of in-house specialist, particularly in cases where problem are new, complex, and ill-defined, and require a substantial amount of creativity or a transfer of analogous knowledge.