Non-customers as initiators of radical innovation

Customers who initiate innovation is a topic frequently discussed in the marketing literature. However, the literature largely ignores non-customers – individuals or firms not using products in the category – as potential initiators of innovation in general and of radical innovation in particular. We argue that non-customers have high knowledge of their own needs, but their knowledge of technology is insufficient to self-generate an innovation. By approaching a potential supplier with a high knowledge of technology but an insufficient knowledge of the need, a unique dyad is created, characterized by a bilateral knowledge gap that stimulates increased learning and co-creation of a potentially radical innovation. We use an historical approach to examine the technological and social antecedents and consequences of three innovations initiated by non-customers: air-conditioning, the pill, and the jeep. We contend that non-customers can initiate innovations that may potentially change industries, create new markets, and have long-term social and economic effects.