Inventors and innovative consumers in the Netherlands
Policymakers generally assume that innovation happens in companies and organisations. In their view, the activities of individual inventors pale in comparison. However, <link people jeroen-de-jong _blank>Dr. Jeroen de Jong contradicts this view in a pioneering study, mapping out the number and characteristics of Dutch inventors. The study is a joint project of EIM Business and Policy Research, the Dutch Association of Inventors (NOVU), and Erasmus University Rotterdam.
De Jong presents his findings in the research report ‘Uitvinders in Nederland’ (Inventors in the Netherlands). There are currently around 10,000 active inventors in the Netherlands, all attempting to commercialise new product ideas. Their activities involve substantial investments, collectively worth over 0.5 billion Euros. Inventors are also a major source of new high-tech business activity.
Alongside inventors, there is an even more substantial group of innovating consumers who do not aim for commercialising their ideas, but who enjoy innovating as part of their private lives. These innovating consumers do not mind sharing their work with others, do not bother about intellectual property, and contribute to welfare creation by inducing huge knowledge spillovers.
