BBC World Service interviews MIT professor Eric Von Hippel on innovation

In an extended interview, Peter Day of BBC World Service’s Global Business programme talks to Professor Eric Von Hippel, head of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology about his revolutionary thinking and what calls the “democratisation of innovation”.

The conversation about user-led innovation starts with a reference to NESTA Connect launch, where Von Hippel spoke recently.

Von Hippel then talks about what he describes as a revolution in innovation moving from in-house R&D (and marketing) departments, to users and customers. He draws out a series of implications for what this means for intellectual property right protection and business models. With the tools to innovate getting better/cheaper/easier (especially in the digital domain but increasingly in other areas as well) he describes his thesis of how innovation is being democratised.

Listen to interview (23:30)