Comment: Exploring the Context of Use

The subject of the role of user firms in developing technology has been implicit in much of the author's work on the history of innovating companies, but she has written her histories of innovation and innovative companies from the viewpoint of the primary innovators, the developers of technology. She agrees with JoAnne Yates that business historians have much to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the role of the user firm. It is rarer still for historians to examine both perspectives at the same time - to look at the nature of the innovating relationship. First a distinction will be made between two types of user firms - the Innovative User and the Enterprise User. The first is the firm that takes an interest in developing technology for its own sake, because the user firm has a need for the potential new functionality, or recognizes an opportunity it would create. The second type of firm user, the Enterprise User, takes an interest in a developing technology for strategic reasons of its own.