Abstract
Individual consumers in the household sector increasingly develop products, services and processes, in their discretionary time without payment. Household sector innovation is becoming a pervasive phenomenon, representing a significant share of the innovation activity in any economy. Such innovation emerges from personal needs or self-rewards, and is distinct from and complementary to producer innovations motivated by commercial gains. In this introductory paper to the special issue on household sector innovation, we take stock of emerging research on the topic. We categorize the research into four areas: scope, emergence, implications for business, and diffusion. We develop a conceptual basis for the phenomenon, introduce the articles in the special issue, and show how each article contributes new insights. We end by offering a research agenda for scholars interested in the salient phenomenon of household sector innovation.
Highlights
Household sector (HHS) innovation is the ideation and development of functionally novel products, processes, or other applications by con sumers, in their discretionary time without payment (von Hippel, 2017)
Household sector innovation is becoming a pervasive phenomenon, representing a significant share of the innovation activity in any economy. Such innovation emerges from personal needs or self-rewards, and is distinct from and complementary to producer innovations motivated by commercial gains
HHS innovation complements so-called producer innovation—which emerges from the motivation to generate value by introducing novel processes, commercializing new products and services, and appropri ating value that others derive from adoption, and earn a profit
Summary
Household sector (HHS) innovation is the ideation and development of functionally novel products, processes, or other applications by con sumers, in their discretionary time without payment (von Hippel, 2017). HHS innovation emerged from user innovation research, but differs in two important ways It focuses strictly on individuals and their innovations in their role as members of the household sector. HHS innovation studies have identified that individual consumer can inno vate for reasons beyond personal needs; hedonic motives and benefits derived from the innovation process are important too (von Hippel, 2017). Accelerated by personal computers, the Internet, online communities, and tools like CAD software and 3D printers, consumers are increasingly capable of developing products with functional novelty (Fox, 2014; Dafermos, 2015) Along with these changes, we are currently witnessing a stream of research on HHS innovation which is both novel and of critical impor tance for society and the economy. We introduce the articles in the special issue and discuss oppor tunities and challenges for future HHS innovation research
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