THE FREEDOM-FIGHTERS: HOW INCUMBENT CORPORATIONS ARE ATTEMPTING TO CONTROL USER-INNOVATION

Novel information and communication technologies, foremost the Internet, have revolutionised the innovation landscape. Mass-collaboration involving end-users is now, a critical component of many types of software improvement and has the potential to make users as the main innovation source of the 21st century. The vision of democratising innovation is not, however, in everybody's interest. Many incumbent corporations are actively engaging in efforts to prevent users from modifying and improving their products. In this paper, we investigate the barriers that incumbents impose upon potentially innovative users and ask under which conditions such behaviours are likely to be sustainable.