Free Innovation
Name
Free Innovation as Pub.pdf
Description
I own the digital rights to Free Innovation - can post the published version - see creative contents license at front of book
Size
3.45 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
f63f98fbe62b0a98e08d0a4dd26f17fc
Author(s)
von Hippel, Eric A.
Date Issued
November 2016
Publisher
MIT Press
Citation
von Hippel, Eric. "Free Innovation." Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, c2016. 240 p.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Overview
In this book, Eric von Hippel, author of the influential Democratizing Innovation, integrates new theory and research findings into the framework of a “free innovation paradigm.” Free innovation, as he defines it, involves innovations developed by consumers who are self-rewarded for their efforts, and who give their designs away “for free.” It is an inherently simple grassroots innovation process, unencumbered by compensated transactions and intellectual property rights.
Free innovation is already widespread in national economies and is steadily increasing in both scale and scope. Today, tens of millions of consumers are collectively spending tens of billions of dollars annually on innovation development. However, because free innovations are developed during consumers’ unpaid, discretionary time and are given away rather than sold, their collective impact and value have until very recently been hidden from view. This has caused researchers, governments, and firms to focus too much on the Schumpeterian idea of innovation as a producer-dominated activity.
Free innovation has both advantages and drawbacks. Because free innovators are self-rewarded by such factors as personal utility, learning, and fun, they often pioneer new areas before producers see commercial potential. At the same time, because they give away their innovations, free innovators generally have very little incentive to invest in diffusing what they create, which reduces the social value of their efforts.
The best solution, von Hippel and his colleagues argue, is a division of labor between free innovators and producers, enabling each to do what they do best. The result will be both increased producer profits and increased social welfare--a gain for all.
MIT Department
Sloan School of Management
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/free-innovation
