Not Invented Here

Not Invented Here (NIH) is a term used to describe a persistent corporate or institutional culture that either intentionally or unintentionally avoids using previously performed research or knowledge because the research and developed knowledge was not originally executed in-house. While perhaps apocryphal, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is said either to be the direct inspiration for the term -- as a play on its acronym -- or simply as one of the worst examples of the culture of 'Not Invented Here'.

In many cases NIH occurs as a result of simple ignorance, as many companies simply never do the research to know whether a solution already exists. Also common, however, are deliberate cases where the organization's staff rejects a known solution because they don't take the time to understand it fully before rejecting it; because they would have to embrace new concepts infrastructure or terminology; or because they believe they can produce a superior product. As a result, much effort and money is wasted on a solution that in many cases was already developed elsewhere.

Further reading

• Katz & Allen, Investigating the Not Invented Here (NIH) Syndrome: a look at the performance, tenure and communication patterns of 50 R&D project groups. R&D Management vol. 12, pp. 7-19, 1982.