The focus of their theoretical paper is on the creation of large complex systems. She began with the broad brush observation that producer innovation was the only game in town from 1750-1990, while interest in “free, open innovation” via user collaboration is a “newly important” way to realize such designs. The paper is set up as a contest as to which one will dominate. Due to her co-author’s perspective, Baldwin said “the answer had to come out one particular way.”
So who wins? The answer was: it depends. Each institution (innovation regime) has its own logic and strengths, and these interact with the technological profile of the artifact being innovated.
Baldwin presented a contingency model, with a theoretical framework mapping two dimensions of a technological cooperation: communication cost and design cost. Her 2-d rendering identified 9 distinct regions and outcomes.
She hinted at an even more complex solution: 4 dimensions, 15 outcomes. However, she concluded, “I don't want to be the author of that kind of model that no one will understand.”
Update 2:20 p.m. EDT: I sat in the 15 minute talk by Prof. Baldwin and got more details, below.

The model assumes that for an institutional form to survive, each party gets benefits behind its costs (benefits might be non-monetary). But in a free (non-coercive) society, no one will continue to participate if the benefits don’t exceed the costs.
There are four institutional forms that could produce such innovations: two types of producers (entrepreneurial, large firm) and two types of user innovators (single user, user community). With all possible combinations of institutional forms (other than the null set) this would make 15 possible outcomes.
To reduce the domain into a 4-space, the researcher reduced the innovation process to four stages (and thus four types of cost):
- Design: creating the instructions for the artifact
- Production: translating the instructions into a tangible artifact
- Communication: explain the artifact to others
- Transaction: the costs associated with exchange between parties (i.e. zero with individuals)
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