Open source software projects as user innovation networks

Innovation development, production, distribution and consumption networks can be built up horizontally – with actors consisting only of innovation users (more precisely, “user/self-manufacturers”). “Free” and “open source” software projects are examples of such networks, and examples can be found in the case of physical products as well. User innovation networks can function entirely independently of manufacturers when (1) at least some users have sufficient incentive to innovate, (2) at least some users have an incentive to voluntarily reveal their innovations, and (3) diffusion of innovations by users is low cost and can compete with commercial production and distribution. When only the first two conditions hold, a pattern of user innovation and trial and improvement will occur within user networks, followed by commercial manufacture and distribution of innovations that prove to be of general interest. In this paper we explore the empirical evidence related to each of these matters and conclude that conditions favorable to user innovation networks are often present in the economy.

[1]  Ralph Katz,et al.  Shifting Innovation to Users via Toolkits , 2002, Manag. Sci..

[2]  J. Tirole,et al.  Some Simple Economics of Open Source , 2002 .

[3]  Pamela D. Morrison,et al.  Determinants of User Innovation and Innovation Sharing in a Local Market , 2000 .

[4]  Eric A. von Hippel,et al.  How Open Source Software Works: 'Free' User-to-User Assistance? , 2000 .

[5]  S. Ogawa.  Does sticky information affect the locus of innovation? Evidence from the Japanese convenience-store industry , 1998 .

[6]  Eric S. Raymond,et al.  The cathedral and the bazaar , 1998, First Monday.

[7]  E. Hippel.  Sticky Information and the Locus of Problem Solving: Implications for Innovation , 1994 .

[8]  E. Hippel,et al.  FROM EXPERIENCE: Developing New Product Concepts Via the Lead User Method: A Case Study in a “Low-Tech” Field , 1992 .

[9]  P. Vanderwerf.  Product tying and innovation in U.S. wire preparation equipment , 1990 .

[10]  Glen L. Urban,et al.  Lead User Analyses for the Development of New Industrial Products , 1988 .

[11]  Edwin Mansfield,et al.  How Rapidly Does New Industrial Technology Leak Out , 1985 .

[12]  B. Shaw.  The Role of the Interaction between the User and the Manufacturer in Medical Equipment Innovation , 1985 .

[13]  Stan N. Finkelstein,et al.  Product designs which encourage -- or discourage -- related innovation by users: an analysis of innovation in automated clinical chemistry analyzers , 1979 .

[14]  P. Ekeh,et al.  Social Exchange Theory: The Two Traditions. , 1975 .

[15]  C. T. Taylor,et al.  The Economic Impact of the Patent System: A Study of the British Experience , 1973 .

[16]  J. D. Cooper.  The sources of innovation. , 1972, Psychopharmacology bulletin.

[17]  C. Freeman.  Chemical Process Plant: Innovation and the World Market , 1968, National Institute Economic Review.

[18]  Jacob Schmookler,et al.  Invention and Economic Growth , 1967 .

[19]  Sidney C. Sufrin.  Book Review: Organizational Behavior: The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups , 1966 .

[20]  Samuel Hollander,et al.  The Sources of Increased Efficiency: A Study of DuPont Rayon Plants , 1965 .

[21]  J. Burke,et al.  Petroleum Progress and Profits: A History of Process Innovation by John Lawrence Enos (review) , 1962 .

[22]  G. Cattani.  Essays on technological evolution , 2004 .

[23]  Sonali K. Shah,et al.  How Communities Support Innovative Activities: An Exploration of Assistance and Sharing Among End-Users , 2003 .

[24]  Christian Lüthje.  Characteristics of Innovating Users in a Consumer Goods Field: An Empirical Study of Sport-Related Product Consumers , 2002 .

[25]  E. von Hippel,et al.  MIT Sloan School of Management , 2002 .

[26]  Sonali Shah.  Sources and Patterns of Innovation in a Consumer Products Field: Innovations in Sporting Equipment , 2000 .

[27]  Kwanghui Lim,et al.  The many faces of absorptive capacity : spillovers of copper interconnect technology for semiconductor chips , 2000 .

[28]  P. Kollock.  The Economies of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace , 1999 .

[29]  William M. Riggs,et al.  The impact of scientific and commercial values on the sources of scientific instrument innovation , 1992 .

[30]  S. Winter,et al.  Appropriating the Returns from Industrial Research and Development , 1987 .

[31]  E. von Hippel,et al.  The dominant role of the user in semiconductor and electronic subassembly process innovation , 1977, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.

[32]  Nathan Rosenberg,et al.  Perspectives on Technology: Technological change in the machine tool industry, 1840–1910 , 1976 .

[33]  Edwin Mansfield,et al.  Industrial Research and Technological Innovation: An Econometric Analysis , 1968 .

[34]  D. Harhoff,et al.  Mit Sloan School of Management Mit Sloan School Working Paper 4749-09 Profiting from Voluntary Information Spillovers: How Users Benefit by Freely Revealing Their Innovations Profiting from Voluntary Information Spillovers: How Users Benefit by Freely Revealing Their Innovations * , 2022 .