Resistance to Information: The Organization and the Independent Inventor

Abstract

This chapter explains how organizations resist information from external sources. It starts with an elaboration of the not-invented-here (NIH) syndrome, the condition in which organizations reject external information gathered from external sources. Relating to the appearance of NIH syndrome is the refusal of organizations to recognize independent inventors who may offer chances to promote great innovations and change the way organizations operate. The chapter then discusses how different government policies in different countries support independent inventors, including the patent system. It ends by citing how independent inventors can innovate things that ‘big organizations’ have provided for ‘big science’.