Democratizing Innovation

Von Hippel's argument that users — not manufacturers — are the primary source of commercially significant innovation, and that the internet has radically lowered the cost of user-to-user innovation diffusion. Drawing on decades of empirical research across industries from scientific instruments to windsurfing equipment, he shows that lead users innovate because their needs outpace what manufacturers offer, and that companies which learn to harness user innovation outperform those that rely solely on internal R&D. The book extends the framework established in The Sources of Innovation (1988) into the networked era, where open-source software serves as the paradigmatic example of user-driven innovation communities. Free from MIT, as von Hippel releases all his books.