Consumer user innovation in Korea: an international comparison and policy implications

This study examines the extent to which individual consumers develop and share user innovations in Korea, extending previous studies of consumer innovation activities undertaken in advanced countries. Using a research method similar to those used in prior studies, this study finds that about 1.5% of adult consumers have generated innovations for their own use during the past three years, and 21.9% of consumer innovators share their innovations with other consumers or firms. Consumers who are male, working, and highly educated are more likely to generate innovations. Moreover, consumer innovators tend to share their innovations, when they are young and participate in community activities and when their innovations have higher values to others. The total amount of innovation expenditure by consumers exceeds 0.34 billion US dollars, which accounts for 4.4% of the R&D investment of Korean firms in the consumer goods sector. Although the proportion of consumer user innovators in Korea is relatively lower than that found in advanced countries, the number of consumers who generate innovations and their innovation expenditures are far from being negligible. As a result, this study suggests a few government policies to encourage and facilitate development, diffusion, and commercialisation of consumer innovations in late industrialising contexts, including Korea.