[innov] HBR: A Quirky Way of Innovating

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW February 8, 2011, 4:10PM EST
A Quirky Way of Innovating
Many useful innovations come from not scientists tinkering in a labs but rather people solving their own problems
Posted on Harvard Business Review: February 7, 2011 2:25 PM

One of the great facts of a quarter of a century of scholarship from MIT Professor Eric von Hippel and his co-authors is that a vast number of useful innovations come not from some scientist and engineer tinkering in a lab, but people who would best be described as users solving their own problems. Examples abound from scientific instruments to mountain bikes. In some cases, the innovations were the work of lone innovators while for others local communities together produced advances.

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