Readings

Prof. von Hippel's Democratizing Innovation is also available as a free download under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license.

SES # TOPICS READINGS
1 The user innovation paradigm Buy at MIT Press von Hippel, Eric. Chapters 1 and 2 in Democratizing Innovation. MIT Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780262002745. [Preview with Google Books]
2 Going for user solutions instead of user needs—the "Lead User Method"

von Hippel, Eric, Stefan Thomke, and Mary Sonnack. "Creating Breakthroughs at 3M." Harvard Business Review, September-October 1999.

Buy at MIT Press von Hippel, Eric. Chapter 10 in Democratizing Innovation. MIT Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780262002745. [Preview with Google Books]

3 How patents discourage innovation—and what to do about it Torrance, Andrew, and Bill Tomlinson. "Patents and the Regress of Useful Arts." The Columbia Science and Technology Law Review X (2009): 130–68.
4 User innovation communities

Buy at MIT Press von Hippel, Eric. Chapters 7 in Democratizing Innovation. MIT Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780262002745. [Preview with Google Books]

———. "Innovation by User Communities: Learning from Open Source Software." Sloan Management Review 42, no. 4 (2001): 82–6.

5 Exploring new combinations of customer needs Urban, Glen, and John R. Hauser. "'Listening In' to Find and Explore New Combinations of Customer Needs." Journal of Marketing 68, no. 2 (2004): 72–87.
6 Determine users' needs ethnographically and then develop solutions Leonard, Dorothy, and Jeffrey F. Rayport. "Spark Innovation Through Empathic Design." Harvard Business Review, November 1997.
7 The MIT Media Lab approach: "Build it and they will come"  
8 Is intellectual property good or bad—how to be partially closed and partially open Raasch, et al. "The Dynamics of User Innovation: Drivers and Impediments of Innovation Activities." International Journal of Innovation Management 12, no. 3 (2008): 377–98.
9 What user hacking looks like—and why people do it  
10 Design and manufacture of "mass customized" products with toolkits / platforms for user innovation Thomke, Stefan, and Eric von Hippel. "Customers as Innovators: A New Way to Create Value." Harvard Business Review, vol. 80, no. 4, April, 2002, 74–81.
11 Crowdsourcing  
12 Tying it all together—when to use each idea generation method and why to expect corporate resistance to your (great) innovations! Buy at MIT Press Morison, Elting. "Gunfire at Sea." Chapter 2 in Men, Machines and Modern Times. MIT Press, 1968. ISBN: 9780262630184.