Modeling a Paradigm Shift: From Producer Innovation to User and Open Collaborative Innovation
Laurance Allen
Working paper: Modeling a Paradigm Shift: From Producer Innovation to User and Open Collaborative Innovation
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6325.html
Download the PDF.
We are in the midst of a major paradigm shift: technological trends are
causing a change in the way innovation gets done in advanced market
economies. In addition to the model of producer-based design—the idea
that most important designs for innovations would originate from
producers and be supplied to consumers via goods and services that were
for sale—two increasingly important models are innovations by single
user firms or individuals, and open collaborative innovation projects.
Each of these three models represents a different way to organize human
effort and investments aimed at generating valuable new innovations.
HBS professor Carliss Y. Baldwin and MIT Sloan School of Management professor Eric von Hippel
analyze the three models in terms of their technological properties,
specifically their design costs and architectures, and their
communication requirements. The researchers argue that as design and
communication costs decline, single user and open collaborative
innovation models will be viable for a steadily wider range of design.
These two models will present an increasing challenge to the
traditional paradigm of producer-based design—but, when open, they are
good for social welfare and should be encouraged by policymakers.
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