User-innovators and “local” information: The case of mountain biking

15 Pages Posted: 15 Aug 2002 Last revised: 7 Jul 2022

See all articles by Christian Lüthje

Christian Lüthje

Technical University Hamburg-Harburg (TUHH); Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management

Cornelius Herstatt

Technical University Hamburg-Harburg (TUHH)

Eric A. von Hippel

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management

Date Written: July 1, 2002

Abstract

In a study of innovations developed by mountain bikers, we find that user-innovators almost always utilize “local” information– information already in their possession or generated by themselves – both to determine the need for and to develop the solutions for their innovations. We argue that this finding fits the economic incentives operating on users. Local need information will in general be the most relevant to user-innovators, since the bulk of their innovation-related rewards typically come from in-house use. User-innovators will increasingly tend to rely on local solution information as the stickiness of non-local solution information rises. When user-innovators do rely on local information, it may be possible to predict the general nature of the innovations they might develop.

Keywords: User Innovation, Local Information, Mountain Biking

Suggested Citation

Lüthje, Christian and Herstatt, Cornelius and von Hippel, Eric, User-innovators and “local” information: The case of mountain biking (July 1, 2002). Research Policy, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=322800 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.322800

Christian Lüthje

Technical University Hamburg-Harburg (TUHH) ( email )

Schwarzenbergstrasse 95
Hamburg, DE Hamburg D-21071
Germany

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management

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Cornelius Herstatt

Technical University Hamburg-Harburg (TUHH) ( email )

Schwarzenbergstrasse 95
Hamburg, DE Hamburg D-21071
Germany

Eric Von Hippel (Contact Author)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management ( email )

E62-455
Cambridge, MA 02142
United States
617-253-7155 (Phone)
617-253-2660 (Fax)