Make it work!-a study of user innovation in Russia

This article studies the specificities of Russian user innovators on a sample of 1,670 home interviews. The percentage of end users who innovate and their willingness to share ideas is much higher in comparison to western countries and rooted in community activities which spread during Soviet times. We identify two groups of user innovators: urban, male, well educated, and financially better-situated vs a much more diverse group of small town folks who innovate out of necessity. The first group confirms previous findings, the second group is unique to developing markets and to Russia in particular. As these user innovators are reluctant to commercialise their innovations and would rather keep them for themselves or share with their peers on a voluntary basis, a great source of ideas and commercial opportunity remains untouched.