User community vs. producer innovation development efficiency: A first empirical study |
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| Authors: | Christoph Hienerth Eric von Hippel Morten Berg Jensen |
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| Institution: | 1. WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management, Vallendar, Germany;2. MIT Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, MA, USA;3. Department of Economics and Business, Aarhus University, Denmark |
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| Abstract: | 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. |
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| Keywords: | User innovation Efficiency measurement Industry development |
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