Innovationen sind wichtig, daher stürzen sich auch alle auf die vielen Statistiken zum Thema (FuE-Investitionen, Patentanmeldungen, Innovationsraten usw.). Doch stimmen diese Statistiken überhaupt? Zweifel sind angebracht, da sich die Statistiken auf Closed Innovation beziehen und Open Innovation kaum berücksichtigen. Diese Erkenntnis ist nun in einem Paper belegt worden. Gault,F. (2011): User innovation and the market . Auf Seite 13 ist folgendes zu lesen:
As an individual is a consumer, but not a producer, the discussion of process innovation is not relevant. The individual consumer can only produce a new or significantly improved product, initially for own use. For this activity to be seen in official statistics, the consumer would have to transfer the knowledge to a firm that produces such products, or start a firm. In either case, the activity of innovation will be found in a business survey, not a social survey. Giving the knowledge to a peer group of individual consumers, or a community of practice, would not be seen in existing social surveys and were it seen, it would not be recognized as innovation.