User community vs. producer innovation development efficiency: A first empirical study
In this paper we report upon a first empirical exploration of the relative efficiency of innovation development by product users vs. product producers. In a study of over 50 years of product innovation in the whitewater kayaking field, we find users in aggregate were approximately 3× more efficient...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Elsevier
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109425 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7235-1032 |
| _version_ | 1826190398264967168 |
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| author | Hienerth, Christoph von Hippel, Eric A. Berg Jensen, Morten |
| author2 | Sloan School of Management |
| author_facet | Sloan School of Management Hienerth, Christoph von Hippel, Eric A. Berg Jensen, Morten |
| author_sort | Hienerth, Christoph |
| collection | MIT |
| description | In this paper we report upon a first empirical exploration of the relative efficiency of innovation development by product users vs. product producers. In a study of over 50 years of product innovation in the whitewater kayaking field, we find users in aggregate were approximately 3× more efficient at developing important kayaking product innovations than were producers in aggregate. We speculate that this result is driven by what we term “efficiencies of scope” in problem-solving. These can favor an aggregation of many user innovators, each spending a little, over fewer producer innovators benefitting from higher economies of scale in product development. We also note that the present study explores only one initial point on what is likely to be a complex efficiency landscape. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:39:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/109425 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:39:40Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1094252022-09-23T13:40:33Z User community vs. producer innovation development efficiency: A first empirical study Hienerth, Christoph von Hippel, Eric A. Berg Jensen, Morten Sloan School of Management von Hippel, Eric A. In this paper we report upon a first empirical exploration of the relative efficiency of innovation development by product users vs. product producers. In a study of over 50 years of product innovation in the whitewater kayaking field, we find users in aggregate were approximately 3× more efficient at developing important kayaking product innovations than were producers in aggregate. We speculate that this result is driven by what we term “efficiencies of scope” in problem-solving. These can favor an aggregation of many user innovators, each spending a little, over fewer producer innovators benefitting from higher economies of scale in product development. We also note that the present study explores only one initial point on what is likely to be a complex efficiency landscape. 2017-05-30T17:23:47Z 2017-05-30T17:23:47Z 2013-08 2013-06 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0048-7333 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109425 Hienerth, Christoph; von Hippel, Eric and Berg Jensen, Morten. “User Community Vs. Producer Innovation Development Efficiency: A First Empirical Study.” Research Policy 43, no. 1 (February 2014): 190–201 © 2013 Elsevier B.V. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7235-1032 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2013.07.010 Research Policy Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Elsevier SSRN |
| spellingShingle | Hienerth, Christoph von Hippel, Eric A. Berg Jensen, Morten User community vs. producer innovation development efficiency: A first empirical study |
| title | User community vs. producer innovation development efficiency: A first empirical study |
| title_full | User community vs. producer innovation development efficiency: A first empirical study |
| title_fullStr | User community vs. producer innovation development efficiency: A first empirical study |
| title_full_unstemmed | User community vs. producer innovation development efficiency: A first empirical study |
| title_short | User community vs. producer innovation development efficiency: A first empirical study |
| title_sort | user community vs producer innovation development efficiency a first empirical study |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109425 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7235-1032 |
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