The pattern we document of frequent innovation by individual user firms at substantial cost, followed in many cases by voluntary, no-charge information spillovers to producers, suggests that "open source economics" may be a general pattern in the economy.
Now that the traditional barriers are falling, manufacturers can seek a competitive advantage by responding to consumer demands with more iterative development, shorter development cycles and more frequent innovation.
Any company can put innovation into their web copy, tagline, or mission statement, but few companies take drastic steps such as frequent innovation training, opening up next to education or learning hubs, or making the investment into top talent to really ensure they stay ahead of the curve.
After the prokaryote/eukaryote split, the ancestors of both kingdoms underwent frequent "innovation events": creations of new domains, reactions, and domain recruitments/reshufflings. Creations of novel domains and domain combinations in prokaryotes slow down after their early ancestor.
3. How do frequent technology innovations impact consumers?
Managers today know that their enterprises depend on frequent, important innovation, but they lack good frameworks and tools to act on that recognition.
The least frequent form of innovation, "New Use of Product," only showed up 4 times out of the total 168 forms of innovations.
Another airline innovation, frequent flier miles, also bothers some people.
Consumer and trade expectations of product packaging should not discourage marketers from innovation, though frequent changes in package size and design breed trade resistance, especially when existing shelf configurations cannot easily accommodate the new packages.
However, it also shows that DUI modes of interaction outside the supply-chain tend to be irrelevant for innovation, with frequent exchanges with competitors being associated with lower levels of innovation.
