1977/10/01 by Eric von Hippel · 1 citation
Business, Management and Accounting · Computer Science · Decision Sciences · #Innovation Diffusion and Forecasting #Innovation and Knowledge Management #Open Source Software Innovations
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1467-9310.1977.tb01270.x
crossref issued 1977/10/01 · crossref published 1977/10/01 · crossref published-print 1977/10/01 · openalex publication_date 1977/10/01 · crossref published-online 2007/05/05 · crossref created 2007/05/14 · crossref deposited 2023/11/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01 · crossref indexed 2026/08/02
Abstract Product users are not usually thought of as product innovators. We have found, however, that 67|X% of the significant process equipment innovations in the two fields of semiconductor manufacture and electronic subassembly manufacture were in fact developed by equipment users rather than equipment manufacturers. Our analysis of the process by which these user innovations are transferred to the first firm to manufacture them commercially shows three major patterns: 46|X% transferred by multiple user‐manufacturer interactions; 21|X% transferred via a direct purchase order from the inventive user; 8|X% manufactured by a user firm for commercial sale. A final 25|X%, we found, were apparently not transferred, but were reinvented by the equipment manufacturing firm. Inventive user firms and adopting equipment manufacturing firms are characterized, and the implications of our findings discussed.