Can users contribute to shape innovation and new technologies?

Journal of Customer Behaviour, 2005

To explore the role of users in radical innovation projects this study focuses on the question whether users are able to actively contribute to the development of radical innovations and which user characteristics are critical hereby. A multiple case study analysis was conducted in the field of medical technology. Five radical innovation projects were selected including medical robots and computerassisted navigation systems. The case studies reveal that users with a unique set of characteristics can play a dominant role in the innovation process of radical innovation. These users have a high motivation toward new solutions, possess diverse competencies and are embedded into a very supportive context. Manufacturers that took over the ideas and prototypes of the inventive users benefited significantly. Based on the empirical findings the recommendation for manufacturers is to systematically leverage specific users for the development of radical innovation.

Are users innovators? The new communicational paradigm of our societies is built around the increasing role of the user as innovations developer and innovator in media content to be read, listen or viewed by others. Users have been increasingly addressed as innovators in media, not only because of the dissemination of the Internet and open source technologies but also because of the individualisation of media, namely mobile phones, video cameras and handheld mp3 and video players. Innovation has to be understood as a dialectical process between participants of unequal power and influence in the marketplace and in the on-going patterns of consumption and use (Silverstone, 2005). As Silverstone (2005) argues, SMS and file sharing have gained almost an aura of mythology in ICT innovation given that both were seen as signs of a radical shift in how innovation takes place, by rebalancing the way producers (technologist, designers, packagers, market analysts, investors) and the consumer interact. The mobile phone industry, taking notice of the SMS uses by youngsters incorporated such knowledge on new mobile phones and services offered (Silverstone 2005; Colombo 2006). Subsequently, the user started to be seen, by the industry, as ‘trend definer’ or ‘active tester of innovation’ (De Marez and De Moor, 2007). The innovation processes became less confined to the industrial environments because the quality of experience is measured through the launching of a high number of models into the market and by monitoring the user’s choice, in order to redefine which models to improve and which to drop. When users innovate they become, no longer ‘end-users’ (Slot, 2007) because they move into the heart of the very own value chain, that is, to the creativity arena. Creativity in a user centric approach, as the one that we are witnessing, depends on the ability of people to organise informal networks (be it companies or organisations that develop beta services/products) and then being able to attract users that will contribute to the definition of the next stage. Such attractiveness depends, in great measure, on the ability to open up the floor and work on the environment, hopping that such an offer will create the conditions for experimentation and creativity to develop among a given growing mediated community, usually web 2.0 sites, but also allowing monitoring the feedback.

2016

Proc of the second Irish Human Computer Interaction …

The aim of this paper is to discuss a trend that is characterizing the way innovation occurs in ICT. I will discuss a shift that complicates the traditional separation between user and designer and makes it less meaningful in favor of a notion of a more proactive user. I will argue that designers -consequently -might want to redefine their own role in the design process. I will then draw on Science and Technology Study and Actor Network Theory in order to provide a framework that could help designers to rethink their own roles, and possibly envision new ways to engage in the shift toward more proactive users.

2020

Considering users as innovators has gained considerable support over the past thirty years. Eric von Hippel's work in this area (1976; 1988) forms a significant part of the theoretical underpinning and evidence behind this concept. Many further studies have been undertaken to support it (e.g., Urban and von Hippel, 1988; Thus, in this paper we critically review the lead-user theory and focus on three specific areas of weakness of the lead-user concept (conceptual, methodological, empirical), and argue that improvement in these areas would considerably strengthen its standing. We conclude that although lead-users can contribute to the innovation process, this contribution should not be over stated and that insufficient attention has been paid to the limitations of this theory.

Science and Public Policy, 2010

The shift from the traditional push towards more user-driven innovation strategies in the information and communications technologies domain has urged companies to place the user at the core of their innovation process in a more systematic way. In this paper we reflect on the implications of this new innovation context for traditional product development processes. Given these implications, two challenges are discussed that are crucial to true user-driven innovation, i.e. the challenge of continuously involving the user and the need for tools to facilitate the integration of knowledge into the increasingly interdisciplinary development process. Drawing on our own experiences in the interdisciplinary Research On Mobile Applications and Services (ROMAS) project, which focused on future mobile applications in a living lab setting, we illustrate how the two challenges can be tackled.

OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING AS …, 2007

Considering users as innovators has gained considerable support over the past 30 years. Eric von Hippel's work in this area forms a significant part of the theoretical underpinning and evidence behind this concept. Many further studies have been undertaken to support it. It has contributed to our understanding of innovation management in general and new product development in particular. Even so, Lüthje and Herstatt emphasise that empirical findings are scarce and that the most radical innovations of the last 35 years were not developed by users. Thus, in this paper we critically review the lead-user theory and focus on three specific areas of weakness of the lead-user concept (conceptual, methodological, empirical), and argue that improvement in these areas would considerably strengthen its standing. We conclude that although lead users can contribute to the innovation process, this contribution should not be overstated, and that insufficient attention has been paid to the limitations of this theory.

The holistic approach to innovation includes establishing a wide range of interactions among different actors which implies development and expansion of methods, approaches and tools for improving the innovation. This paper analyzes the impact of customers and users on promoting innovation of companies. In this context, the authors advocate different methods and approaches for establishing interactions between the customer and the company and for providing the customer involvement in the process of innovation. Therefore, the paper aims at presenting an analytical overview of the methods and tools by which users influence companies' process of innovation. It will also propose a conceptual framework as regards the user involvement in different stages of the innovation process.

Design plays a growing role in the public sector. Designers’ tools and service design processes have put an emphasis on empathy for the users, creativity, visual thinking, and co-design. The focus of this paper is on how co-innovation with users can be done in the public sector, and how the service design tools – service prototyping in specific – are able to help in doing this.