Strategies of user-initiated product innovation

Abstract

Several studies of success and failure in industrial new product development have demonstrated that, in order to be effective innovators, manufacturers must appreciate thoroughly the needs and behaviour of potential users. Attention has also been focused on the needs for precise and adequate communication between producers and customers during the innovative process and for close interaction between buyers and sellers at all stages. The research reported here deals with situations in which the required appreciation, communication and closeness ought to be readily available, for user-initiated innovation refers to the inauguration of new industrial processes and products by users rather than by external manufacturers. Since the user-initiator who invents the innovation also applies it directly in his own productive processes before approaching a manufacturer who will produce and market it under license or undertaking these tasks himself, there is a rare closeness between producer and (at least the initial) buyer which is founded upon a unique access to information about the operational performance of the innovation. The paper is especially concerned with identifying for further research the strategic, managerial and organisational issues which arise out of the expansion of the entrepreneurial role of the user-initiator in the commercial exploitation of his invention as a product innovation. Given the compelling evidence that many companies fail to make full use of the technologies available to them as sources of new products, this research is seen as an essential component of the regeneration and increased competitive advantage of British industry.