Collective invention

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As Collective invention (English Collective Invention ) is in the range of economics a model for innovation referred to in the inventor openly share their innovations to each other. The term "Collective Invention" comes from Robert Allen. A well-known example of collective invention is the development of open source software. Further examples can be given for parts of the mining industry at the beginning of the 19th century, the development of blast furnaces in the second half of the 19th century and the development of flat screens between 1969 and 1989.

The sharing of knowledge is a social dilemma in which free riders who benefit from everyone's knowledge without contributing their own knowledge are favored. The collective invention model can therefore only persist under certain conditions; as soon as the competing participants increasingly try to gain advantage through secrecy, the process of collective invention comes to a standstill.

Collective invention is closely related to the concept of open innovation , in which organizations open their research and development to outside input.

General factors

According to Osterloh et al. Lit there are three factors that mitigate the social dilemma and thus enable collective invention:

  1. The innovation is so radical that it is difficult to develop the diverse potentials without the exchange of knowledge. This is especially the case with new fields of technology.
  2. There are no products yet, so sharing knowledge does not cost market share. Instead, cooperation is sometimes even necessary in order to create the basis for future products at all, for example when establishing common standards .
  3. There are selective incentives that give those involved their own advantages for sharing knowledge, for example reputation or additional profits in other areas.

The social contribution dilemma can be reduced in importance by low costs for contributors compared to selective incentives. However, even with low participation costs or high selective incentives, there is a motivation barrier if the participants feel that they are merely being exploited. To overcome this social dilemma of the second order, rules help that outlaw or otherwise prevent undesirable behavior.

Collective invention in the field of open source

While software was developed and shared as a collective invention until the late 1970s , this process of innovation was more and more hampered by the beginning of commercialization . Richard Stallman created with the copyleft principle and the GNU General Public License a possibility to ensure the disclosure of software for developments based on one's own work. In the meantime, with open source, this type of collective invention has established itself in wide areas of software development . Studying the motivation of open source developers that provide sufficient selective incentives is the subject of open source research. Rules of cooperation such as the hacker ethic and copyleft licenses help to overcome the social dilemma of the feeling of being exploited .

The process of collective invention in the field of open source can be largely transferred to the joint creation of free content , as is practiced in Wikipedia , for example , and which leads to the emergence of a knowledge commons .

literature

  • Margit Osterloh , Sandra Rotha, Roger Lüthi (2006): Is “Collective Invention” a new innovation model? . In: Olga Drousou et al. (Ed.): The wonderful world of knowledge increase. Heise, ISBN 3-936931-38-0
  • Peter B. Meyer (2003): Episodes of Collective Invention . DRUID Working Paper 01-05, ISBN 87-7873-104-6 ( pdf )

swell

  1. ^ A b Robert C. Allen (1983): Collective invention . In: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 4, number 1, pp. 1-24
  2. ↑ Alessandro Nuvolari (2001): Collective Invention during the British Industrial Revolution: The Case of the Cornish Pumping Engine . In: Cambridge Journal of Economics 28, number 3, pp. 347–363 ( pdf ( memento of the original of June 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link accordingly Instructions and then remove this notice. ) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.druid.dk
  3. ↑ Jennifer Spencer (2003): Firms' Knowledge-Sharing Strategies in the Global Innovation System: Empirical Evidence from the Global Flat Panel Display . In: Strategic Management Journal, 24, pp. 217-233