Surveying innovation in samples of individual end consumers

Abstract

Rather than businesses, individual end consumers may develop innovations for themselves. Typically such innovators are not bothered with protecting their innovation-related knowledge, a phenomenon recently coined as ‘free innovation’ (von Hippel, E. (in press), Free Innovation, MIT Press: Cambridge, MA). End consumers typically innovate for other reasons than commercial gains: personal use benefits, fun, learning, or helping others. This paper takes stock of how innovation by individual consumers has been measured, and proposes a survey procedure for future studies of consumer innovation. I provide a literature review of how innovation by individual end consumers has been measured, and report on four pilots studies conducted in Finland to improve and standardize its measurement. The standardized survey procedure includes up to six steps, and can be tailored to researchers’ resources and purposes. The procedure will enable better international/cross-study comparisons and an efficient collection of data.

Keywords: User innovation, Measurement