Broaden our Sight Beyond Producer and User Innovation - Product Innovation Initiated by the Helper

Abstract

Stemming from Schumpeter (1934), most literature of innovation management implicitly assumes producer as innovator of product. It is until Von Hippel (1976) that user was identified as another source of innovations. However, from an innovation case of Assistive Technology (AT) industry, we found that helper, neither producer nor user, of the AT product might be the innovator. Helpers are the service providers, who help their clients to use the product, and may initiate new product innovations based on their experiences of helping users. Therefore, besides producer innovation and user innovation, we have broaden our sight and identify a new kind of innovation— helper innovation. During the process of providing services, these helpers can reach many users who use various kinds of products with similar functions. Therefore, they have deeper understanding of the unmet demands of users than the producer, and have wider knowledge of the market and alternative technologies of products than the user. These two advantages make the helper innovation unique and important source of product innovations for improving lives. According to the complementarity rates between the newly innovated product, the helper’s service and the original product, we differentiate helper innovation into nine types. Then, we propose 13 propositions for these types of helper innovations and discuss their managerial implications. It is important to expand the innovation typology from producer and user innovation to include helper innovation. For firms need to watch over their potential competitors beyond their supply chain in today’s transient age, and firms also need to identify the key players in their open innovation partners, especially the platform builders (e.g. Google) -- the key helpers for all firms in the internet era.