Independent inventors have generally been overlooked in research on innovation. This study helps fill the knowledge gap. A survey of independent inventors in the USA showed that their inventions tended towards hardware/tool, household products, industrial/commercial products, novelty items and toys/games/hobbies. Thirty-nine per cent of the respondents generated sales from their inventions and approximately 20% profited from them. Inventors who established a company to commercialize their inventions were most likely to achieve sales. However, inventors who licensed their inventions were more likely to achieve higher sales levels than those who commercialized them only via their own company, or by selling their inventions outright.
AndersonH. (2004), ‘Why big companies can't invent’, Technology Review, Vol 107, No 4, pp 56–59.
2.
AstebroT. (1998), ‘Basic statistics on the success rate and profits for individual inventors’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Vol 23, No 2, pp 41–49.
3.
BrownK. A. (1988), Inventors at Work: Interviews with 16 Notable American Inventors, Tempus Books of Microsoft Press, Redland, WA.
4.
BurglemanR. A.ChristensenC. M.WheelwrightS. C. (2004), Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation, McGraw Hill Companies Inc, New York, p 3.
5.
ChristensenC. M. (1997), The Innovator's Dilemma, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.
6.
ComarowA. (2002), ‘Flying solo’, U.S. News and World Report, Vol 2, No 11, p 64.
7.
CooperR. G. (1986), Winning at New Products, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA.
8.
CrawfordC. M. (1995), New Products Management, 4 ed, Richard Irwin Inc, Homewood, IL.
9.
DahlinK.TaylorM.FichmanM. (2000), ‘Differences in inventive content between independent inventors and corporate inventors’, Rotman Working Paper Series 2000–07, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.
10.
DolanR. J. (1993), Managing the New Product Development Process, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co Inc, Reading, MA.
11.
HisrichR. D. (1985), ‘The inventor: A potential source for new products’, The Mid Atlantic Journal of Business, Vol 24, No 1, pp 67–80.
12.
JaffeA. B.FogartyM. S.BanksB.A. (1998), ‘Evidence from patents and patent citations on the impact of NASA and other federal labs on commercial innovation’, The Journal of Industrial Economics, Vol 46, No 2, pp 183–205.
13.
JudgeG. G.HillR. C.GriffithsW. E.LutkepohlH.LeeT. (1988), Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Econometrics, John Wiley and Sons, New York, p 794.
14.
KhanB. Z.SokoloffK. L. (1993), ‘Schemes of practical utility: Entrepreneurship and innovation among the great inventors in the United States, 1790–1865’, Journal of Economic History, Vol 53, pp 289–307.
15.
MansfieldE. (1995), ‘Academic research underlying industrial innovations: Sources, characteristics, and financing’, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol 77, No 1, pp 55–65.
16.
MunschK. (2004), ‘Outsourcing design and innovation’, Research Technology Management, Vol 47, No 1, p 27–30.
17.
ParkerR. S.UdellG. G.BladesL. (1996), ‘The new independent inventors: Implications for corporate policy’, Review of Business, Vol 17, No 3, spring, pp 7–13.
18.
PorterM. F. (1998), ‘Clusters and the new economics of competition’, Harvard Business Review, November–December, p 77.
19.
PostrelV. L. (1996), ‘Tinkerer's secret’, Forbes, Vol 157, No 11, p 144.
20.
QuinnJ. B. (2000), ‘Outsourcing innovation: The new engine of growth’, Sloan Management Review, Vol 41, No 4, pp 13–28.
21.
ReeseH. (2002), How to License Your Million Dollar Idea, 2 ed, John Wiley and Sons Inc, Hoboken, NJ.
22.
RigbyD.ZookC. (2002), ‘Open-market innovation’, Harvard Business Review, October, pp 80–89.
23.
RobertsonA. (1984), ‘Characteristics of the successful inventor: Some notes on the nature of creativity and the creative mind’, Technovation, Vol 2, pp 141–145.
24.
RomerP. M.GrilichesZ. (1993), ‘Implementing a national strategy with self-organizing industry investment boards’, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. Microeconomics, Vol 1993, No 2, pp 345–399.
25.
RosenbergN. (1982), Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
26.
RuttanV. W. (2001), Technology, Growth and Development, Oxford University Press, New York, p 83.
27.
SchmooklerJ. (1957), ‘Inventors past and present’, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol 39, No 3, pp 321–333.
28.
SchrageM. (2003), ‘Amateur innovation’, Technology Review, June, p 18.
29.
SirilliG. (1987), ‘Patents and inventors: An empirical study’, Research Policy, Vol 16, pp 157–174.
30.
StixG. (2002), ‘Wanted: More mothers of invention’, Scientific American, Vol 286, No 6, p 34.
31.
United Inventors Association – UIA (2002), ‘The inventor's master plan’, Inventor's Digest Magazine, UIA, Rochester, N. Y.
32.
United States Patent and Trademark Office – USPTO (2002a), ‘Independent inventors by state by year’, Utility Patents Report, Jan 1, 1975–December 31, 2001, USPTO, Washington, DC.
33.
United States Patent and Trademark Office (2002b), All Technologies (Utility Patents) Report, 1/1963–December 31, 2001, USPTO, Washington, DC.
34.
UtterbackJ. M. (1996), Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.
35.
von HippelE. (1998), The Sources of Innovation, Oxford University Press, New York.
