Forbidden Fruit

Beschreibung

This book is about corporate underground creativity, also called “bootlegging”. Bootlegging in corporate R&D is defined as a non-formalised and non-declared (secret) bottom-up innovation process for the benefit of the bootlegger’s firm. It violates - deliberately or not - corporate norms, including explicit management orders. The book discusses the prevalence of ‘bootlegging’. It includes national and sectoral differences, the percentage of bootleg entrepreneurs, and bootleg time consumption. Probably most important, it establishes that bootlegging is not a major phenomenon either in terms of manpower, or resource consumption but a quite common phenomenon in the initial stages of innovation. The three essential resources used are materials, tools or equipment, and time, of which the latter is the most important resource. It also specifies the purpose of bootlegging, the technological stage at disclosure, the bootleg product size, and the technology. Not surprisingly, most bootleg output is not radical product innovation as most literature might suggest. Bootlegging are mostly incremental technological product or process improvements. It is part of a continuous learning process related to experimental R&D. Is there a tangible value for the firm? In other words, does bootlegging meet business needs? What happens with bootleg products after disclosure, are they rejected or accepted? It emerges that most companies benefit from bootlegging. The output meets business needs, and the uncertainty caused by bootleg activity is evaluated as relatively low.

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Peter Augsdörfer

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