Tibor Dőry

Innovation and excellence

Management methods for innovation transformation

Users as innovators

Based on the research of Eric von Hippel (1988), a lecturer and researcher at one of the world's best technical universities, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, it became clear in the 1980s and then forgotten due to the continuous growth resulting from the advance of globalisation, that in certain categories of innovation, it is the users of the product or device themselves who are the real innovators, and not really the manufacturing companies. These are users who like to experiment with the tools and equipment they use and strive to make them work better, more accurately and more efficiently. In the process, they make numerous discoveries that are incorporated into scientific instruments or sports equipment, for example, in collaboration with manufacturers. Therefore, when discussing the sources of innovation, it is important to answer the question: what steps are involved in the innovation process and new product development with user involvement?

We illustrate the process of user innovation with an example from instrument manufacturing. Users of scientific measuring instruments are typically innovative university scientists who are motivated and interested in accelerating the spread of their developments. As is common among scientific professionals, they first publish their research results and details of the homemade devices used to achieve them in scientific journals. In the next step, they inform their colleagues and other scientists about their innovations, typically through presentations at conferences and visits to other scientists' laboratories. Information disseminated by innovators about major developments is quickly picked up by other scientists and industrial companies, who incorporate it into their own product ranges or build new types of instruments based on the original idea.

In the two narrower areas of instrument manufacturing examined by Hippel (1988), two things happened within a year of the original inventor's first publication:

in most cases, other scientists replicated the homemade device and then also published their experiences with the use of the measuring instruments;
in some cases, a commercial version developed by industrial instrument manufacturers was also launched on the market.

In this special type of development, the innovative user plays a multifaceted yet central role. On the one hand, it was the user who identified the need for the measuring instrument to provide more accurate measurement results. Identifying this need mobilised their knowledge, and they designed the parameters of the new instrument and built several prototypes. By testing and applying them, they proved the value of the prototype. As scientists and researchers, they disseminated detailed information about both the value of the invention and how the device could be replicated. The instrument manufacturing company only entered the process after all of the above events had taken place. The manufacturer then typically carried out further product development and pre-production work on the device invented by the user in order to improve its reliability and ease of use, seeing the commercial potential of the product and confident of a return on its development, then manufactured, marketed and sold the innovative product.

Numerous other categories of innovation similar to the example of the measuring instrument presented can be identified, in which it is typically the user of the product, rather than the manufacturer, who recognises the need, then solves the problem with their invention, builds a prototype and demonstrates the prototype's value in use.

One important observation from international publications based on empirical corporate research published in the last decade is that small and medium-sized enterprises generally underestimate process and product innovations in which users/customers adapt and further develop the technologies, industrial equipment and manufacturing tools in order to better suit their needs and solve their problems (Bradonjic et al., 2019). Furthermore, these so-called user innovations do not necessarily appear in innovation statistics (e.g. Community Innovation Survey), because in many cases information about such developments does not reach the upper levels of the company or the respondents of such surveys. The 2018 edition of the Oslo Manual, published by the OECD and Eurostat, which serves as the basis for innovation surveys, already attempts to keep pace with corporate practice and considers the development of production processes to be business process innovation (OECD, 2018).

Relatively little empirical research has been done on user innovations implemented by manufacturing companies. In this regard, a survey of Dutch high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises, based on feedback from 498 companies, is noteworthy. The results of the research show that about half of the responding companies (54 per cent) developed completely new technological equipment or software for their own use and/or modified them at their own expense. What is even more surprising is that a quarter of the user innovations in the sample were also commercially available from the companies manufacturing the equipment. What is more, in many cases, the company that created the modified device did not request direct compensation or any share from the manufacturer (Jong–Hippel, 2009).

Tartalomjegyzék

Kiadó: Akadémiai Kiadó

Online megjelenés éve: 2026

ISBN: 978 963 664 182 5

Menedzsment

The aim of the book "Innovation and Excellence" is to inspire and encourage company leaders, managers, and experts to initiate and implement innovation transformations with the help of professional literature and corporate case studies. Another important goal is to help develop the innovation capabilities of small and medium-sized enterprises in particular by sharing simple, proven management methods that can be tested in practice.

The first part of the volume reviews the factors of corporate excellence and success, then highlights the possible sources of innovation, with a focus on the role of users and employees. The empirical section presents a detailed description of the supportive role of the workplace environment and creative working conditions based on corporate case studies (AUDI, BOSCH, MELECS). The volume concludes with a description of selected tested practical methods and management techniques that readers can try out in their own businesses.

Hivatkozás: https://mersz.hu/dory-innovation-and-excellence//

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