Free Innovation

Author(s):  
Eric von Hippel

This book integrates new theory and research findings into the framework of a “free innovation paradigm.” Free innovation, as the book defines it, involves innovations developed by consumers who are self-rewarded for their efforts, and who give their designs away “for free.” It is an inherently simple grassroots innovation process, unencumbered by compensated transactions and intellectual property rights. Free innovation is already widespread in national economies and is steadily increasing in both scale and scope. Today, tens of millions of consumers are collectively spending tens of billions of dollars annually on innovation development. However, because free innovations are developed during consumers' unpaid, discretionary time and are given away rather than sold, their collective impact and value have until very recently been hidden from view. This has caused researchers, governments, and firms to focus too much on the Schumpeterian idea of innovation as a producer-dominated activity. Free innovation has both advantages and drawbacks. Because free innovators are self-rewarded by such factors as personal utility, learning, and fun, they often pioneer new areas before producers see commercial potential. At the same time, because they give away their innovations, free innovators generally have very little incentive to invest in diffusing what they create, which reduces the social value of their efforts. The best solution, this book argues, is a division of labor between free innovators and producers, enabling each to do what they do best. The result will be both increased producer profits and increased social welfare—a gain for all.

2020 ◽  
pp. 002085231989468
Author(s):  
Jose M. Barrutia ◽  
Carmen Echebarria

This article studies the contribution of exploitative and explorative innovation to the perceptions of economic and social value of local authorities in charge of sustainability-related innovation. The model proposed is tested capturing the perceptions of 656 local authorities. The research findings contribute evidence of complex linkages between innovation forms (i.e. exploitative and explorative) and facets of perceived value. Overall, the link between the perceptions of both forms of innovation and economic value fits March’s (1991) view. A positive effect of both exploitative and explorative innovation on economic value is found, coupled with a negative interaction effect. The influence of exploitative innovation is stronger than that of explorative innovation. However, this is only part of the story. We also consider the link between exploitative/explorative innovation and one additional facet of value: social value (in the form of network identification). The roles of both predictors are virtually opposite: identification is mostly explained by explorative innovation, rather than exploitative innovation. The social value dimension considered in this research adds an explanation as to why public organisations may focus on exploration or combine both exploitation and exploration. Points for practitioners • Public managers may focus on exploitative innovation (when economic value considerations are dominant) and on explorative innovation (when social value thinking prevails), or combine both activities. • Network promoters should not assume that public managers favour exploitative innovation over explorative innovation.


Author(s):  
Antonios Broumas

The purpose of this chapter is to outline the methodology of the author’s research that aims to identify the contemporary manifestations of commonification in the circulation of social value and, thus, grasp the actual formations of the intellectual commons, both offline and online, in the current socio-historical context. This research decrypts the generation, circulation, pooling together and redistribution of social value observed in the intellectual commons communities of the research sample, with the aim of showing the importance of the intellectual commons for social reproduction. This chapter sets out the methodological bases and the design of the research in three sections. The first of these spells out the methodological orientation of the research. The second unveils the design of the research. The third describes the coding process followed in relation to data collected from eight Greek intellectual commons communities, which constitute the sample of the current research. Overall, this chapter lays down the methodological foundations of the research and the framework to used elicit the research findings and conclusions exhibited in the following chapters and thus supports its overall normative argumentation that the intellectual commons have significant moral value, which justifies their independent protection and promotion by the law.


2014 ◽  
Vol 114 (3) ◽  
pp. 866-879 ◽  
Author(s):  
Song Wu ◽  
Jiaqing Sun ◽  
Wei Cai ◽  
Shenghua Jin

Two studies were conducted to replicate and extend previous findings on the effect of uncooperative behavior on group cooperation (the “bad apple” effect). Study 1 (56 women, 40 men; M age = 23.5 yr.) manipulated information about contributions from the bad apple, controlling for overall contributions to a group account. Study 2 (50 women, 34 men; M age = 20.4 yr.) compared the effects of a bad apple and a good apple on cooperation. The social value orientation of participants was measured to explore individual differences in the bad apple effect. The results revealed a bad apple (a) decreased cooperation among individuals with proself and prosocial orientations in Study 1, and (b) had a greater effect than a good apple on those who were proself compared to prosocial in Study 2.


2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benoît Testé ◽  
Samantha Perrin

The present research examines the social value attributed to endorsing the belief in a just world for self (BJW-S) and for others (BJW-O) in a Western society. We conducted four studies in which we asked participants to assess a target who endorsed BJW-S vs. BJW-O either strongly or weakly. Results showed that endorsement of BJW-S was socially valued and had a greater effect on social utility judgments than it did on social desirability judgments. In contrast, the main effect of endorsement of BJW-O was to reduce the target’s social desirability. The results also showed that the effect of BJW-S on social utility is mediated by the target’s perceived individualism, whereas the effect of BJW-S and BJW-O on social desirability is mediated by the target’s perceived collectivism.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Zachary Nowak ◽  
Bradley M. Jones ◽  
Elisa Ascione

This article begins with a parody, a fictitious set of regulations for the production of “traditional” Italian polenta. Through analysis of primary and secondary historical sources we then discuss the various meanings of which polenta has been the bearer through time and space in order to emphasize the mutability of the modes of preparation, ingredients, and the social value of traditional food products. Finally, we situate polenta within its broader cultural, political, and economic contexts, underlining the uses and abuses of rendering foods as traditional—a process always incomplete, often contested, never organic. In stirring up the past and present of polenta and placing it within both the projects of Italian identity creation and the broader scholarly literature on culinary tradition and taste, we emphasize that for so-called traditional foods to be saved, they must be continually reinvented.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Min Zhou ◽  
Xiangyi Li

We consider cross-space consumption as a form of transnational practice among international migrants. In this paper, we develop the idea of the social value of consumption and use it to explain this particular form of transnationalism. We consider the act of consumption to have not only functional value that satisfies material needs but also a set of nonfunctional values, social value included, that confer symbolic meanings and social status. We argue that cross-space consumption enables international migrants to take advantage of differences in economic development, currency exchange rates, and social structures between countries of destination and origin to maximize their expression of social status and to perform or regain social status. Drawing on a multisited ethnographic study of consumption patterns in migrant hometowns in Fuzhou, China, and in-depth interviews with undocumented Chinese immigrants in New York and their left-behind family members, we find that, despite the vulnerabilities and precarious circumstances associated with the lack of citizenship rights in the host society, undocumented immigrants manage to realize the social value of consumption across national borders and do so through conspicuous consumption, reciprocal consumption, and vicarious consumption in their hometowns even without being physically present there. We conclude that, while cross-space consumption benefits individual migrants, left-behind families, and their hometowns, it serves to revive tradition in ways that fuel extravagant rituals, drive up costs of living, reinforce existing social inequality, and create pressure for continual emigration.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3075
Author(s):  
Miguel Ángel Martín Valmayor ◽  
Beatriz Duarte Monedero ◽  
Luis A. Gil-Alana

In this paper, we examine the concept of the social balance sheet (SBS) and its evolution in corporate social reports that large companies have to issue today in their yearly statements. The SBS allows companies to evaluate their compliance with corporate social responsibility during a specific period and quantify its level of accomplishment. From a methodological perspective, this research analyzed the information that should be contained in the SBS report comparing economic value added (EVA) with other social value added statements (SVA), analyzing also in detail the case of Spain’s Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) bank as one of the pioneers in offering social reports. Along with this study, their metrics following EVA were recalculated and a more academic SVA statement was proposed for this specific case.


Author(s):  
Petah Atkinson ◽  
Marilyn Baird ◽  
Karen Adams

Yarning as a research method has its grounding as an Aboriginal culturally specified process. Significant to the Research Yarn is relationality, however; this is a missing feature of published research findings. This article aims to address this. The research question was, what can an analysis of Social and Family Yarning tell us about relationality that underpins a Research Yarn. Participant recruitment occurred using convenience sampling, and data collection involved Yarning method. Five steps of data analysis occurred featuring Collaborative Yarning and Mapping. Commonality existed between researcher and participants through predominantly experiences of being a part of Aboriginal community, via Aboriginal organisations and Country. This suggests shared explicit and tacit knowledge and generation of thick data. Researchers should report on their experience with Yarning, the types of Yarning they are using, and the relationality generated from the Social, Family and Research Yarn.


Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Crisanta-Alina Mazilescu ◽  
Laurent Auzoult-Chagnault ◽  
Loredana Ileana Viscu ◽  
Bernard Gangloff

In responsible management, managerial efficiency and sustainable development meet and influence each other. In order to give meaning to their organisation, to respect and look after their collaborators, a manager must promote a set of values on a personal, organisational and societal level. The purpose of this paper is to study the social value attributed to responsible management by students of a technical university. We have therefore undertaken to study a set of seven values attributed to responsible management and, more precisely, their utility and social desirability on a personal, organisational and societal level. The values have been operationalized with personality descriptors. The 60 participants in this study are students from a Romanian technical university. They had to assess, on four scales of seven points each (two for desirability and two for social utility), the value of a person characterised by one of the seven values attributed to responsible management. The results show us that efficiency is the value perceived by the students as being the most desirable for responsible management, and that in terms of social utility, agility is the most appreciated value. We found that there is indeed an effect of the context in which these values are perceived. Efficiency, audacity, dedication and integrity are perceived as more useful at an organisational level, while solidarity was perceived as more useful on a societal level. At the organisational level we also found a gender effect, in the sense that women appreciate people who are efficient, have integrity or are humble more than men do.


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