What User-Innovators Do that Others Don’t : A Study of Daily Practices

This paper argues that innovation behavior roots in specific socio-psychological set-ups that crystallize in daily practices and routines. The latter are easy to observe and have great potential for the identification of user-innovation behavior. We study the practices and routines of Russian user-innovators around media consumption, internet and technology-usage, consumer preferences and civic engagement in comparison with a sample of mere users. The derived model correctly classified 73% of the original grouped cases of user-innovators. We conclude that a set of practices relative to the economic, social and cultural background explains user-innovation engagement and how support could be provided. Although some of our findings are probably specific to Russia, the results are encouraging for further research into the importance of practices and routines in identifying user-innovators