Читать книгу Innovation in Sport. Innovation Trajectories and Process Optimization онлайн

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Von Hippel, and a growing number of researchers with him, were particularly interested in sport. The invention and spectacular spread of the mountain bike is an example. In the United States, in the early 1970s, elite sportsmen who wanted to ride off-road and were dissatisfied with the existing bicycles decided to build their own equipment. To get around on rough terrain, they cobbled together bicycles by assembling pre-existing elements (old solid frames, wide tires, motorcycle brakes, etc.). Gradually, these prototypes were taken up, perfected and developed by user-manufacturers, and only then were they recovered and generalized by the bicycle industry (Büenstorf 2003). Subsequently, users have continued to invent new equipment due to the diversification of mountain bike practice (subspecialties according to terrain, practice conditions, modalities – touring, downhill, etc.), giving rise to other unmet needs (Lüthje et al. 2005). In the development of kitesurfing, Franke et al. (2006) have also highlighted the essential role of kite surfers in the improvement (incremental innovation) of equipment, by adapting and diverting equipment, in an iterative and collective way. These authors underline the efficiency of this bottom-up mode of innovation (open innovation, user-centered innovation, or community-based innovation), which is confirmed by the safety improvements obtained in this way in the field of wing safety releases (Hillairet 2012). A study of innovation practices in four sports communities – canyoning, gliding, boardercross and cycling – suggests that, on average, 20–30% of practitioners have already modified or created their equipment (Franke and Shah 2003).