A Road to Open Innovation: A Model of Technological Innovativeness of Youth

Abstract

Innovation is one o f the last key drivers of
competitiveness and growth fo r the U.S. in the
twenty-first century. Open innovation is a
buzzword when it comes to new product
development. While customers have been regularly
involved in the research and development process
using various qualitative and quantitative
marketing research methods, they were never
considered co-creators o f products an d services.
Scholarly research in marketing has focused on the
adoption an d use o f new products with limited
research on the design an d creation process. The
advent of the internet a n d its facilities for
information access an d symmetry has resulted in
an increase in direct custom er participation in the
value discovery an d value creation process. Certain
custom ers are n ot ju s t lea d users bu t lead
contributors o f ideas fo r the next generation o f
products. Further, the usage behaviors o f younger
consum ers when it com es on online an d new m edia
technologies set them up as m arket bellwethers.
This study defines an d m easures the technological
innovativeness o f youth an d considers the im pact o f
key variables on this m easure. Using M ultiple
Linear Regression, significant im pact o f the three
independent variables - Creative, Passion, an d
Expertise on the dependent variable - propensity fo r
Technological Innovations was fou n d . Future
research directions to expand the conceptual m odel
an d m anagerial im plications o f the research are
also forw arded.