A typology of user-led innovation: the case of 'anything left-handed', the world's first real and virtual shop for left-handed goods

Policymakers are increasingly interested (see NESTA 2007a, DIUS 2008) in what has been called User-Led (von Hippel 1988), Open (Chesborough 2003) and Democratic (von Hippel 2005) innovation as a driver for profit and/or social well-being. This paper argues that user-led innovation is a composite phenomenon, and puts forward a typology which distinguishes between user-led changes to ideas, products, services, processes and systems. It situates this typology within an illustrative device called the Democratic Innovation Space, which can be used to differentiate between different kinds of user-led activities, and highlight the means through which engagement with scientific, firm, policy and lay users is supported. It is suggested that this approach may be used to gain a greater understanding of democratic innovation as a process (von Hippel 2005) and system (Gristock 2001). New perspectives on lead users, absorptive capacity, collective innovation settings, the linear model of user-led innovation (Baldwin et al 2006) and open systems of mediation as participative architectures are introduced. Application of the typology and illustrative device is demonstrated with the help of a case study of user involvement with products and service development associated with the global company Anything Left-Handed (see also Gristock 2001b).