A Systematic Review of End-users Within Sustainable Innovation

Sustainable innovation is typically seen as within the purview of the producer with consumers (apart from offering critical input) only playing a peripheral role in the development of product(s) and service(s). Hence one could argue that end-users are dominantly perceived as passive adopters of sustainable products and services developed by firms and thus attention is typically paid to the (non-) diffusion of sustainable products and services. The literature on user innovation, however, sharply contrasts with this view denoting that end-users play key and growing role within innovation. Especially with the advent Web 2.0, the continuously decreasing cost of communication, and the rise of multiple types of freeware has the knowledge and toolsets available for end-user innovation increased dramatically. With the rise of 3D-printing (and other open workshops), digital end-user generated content is also increasingly being translated into real-world product and service innovation. In utilizing a systematic literature review method this paper explores the current literature on end-user innovation within the realm of sustainable products and services. In order understand both the types of innovation pursued by end-users and how process itself comes about, thereby arguably contributing to the sustainable innovation literature by exploring how end-users independently innovate towards sustainable goals. The literature review is part of larger EU FP7 project – EU-InnovatE – tasked with exploring the role of end-users within in shaping sustainable lifestyles and the transition towards a green economy.