The new frontier of innovation

Abstract

This is an introductory chapter that outlines the main context for the book – the shift in the ability of users and others to mobilise and coordinate the resources required in order to innovate. This book provides a detailed account of the way in which goods and services are produced and consumed at the new frontier of innovation. Each of the chapters explores a different aspect of this developing frontier and provide detailed case studies of the different forms the processes of creation and consumption are now taking. This is not an exercise in prediction, rather it holds up a mirror to what is happening around us and provides a new toolkit to help make sense of complex and confusing situations. The exciting, or disturbing, reality is that the real-world cases presented throughout the book provide illustrations of possible futures for firms, sectors and entire industries.