Invented Here
Not Invented There · Proudly Found Elsewhere
The tendency towards dismissing any innovation or less-than-trivial solution originating from inside an organization — typically because of lack of confidence in the staff.
Origin
"Invented Here" emerged as the conceptual opposite of "Not Invented Here" (NIH) syndrome, which gained prominence at Hewlett-Packard in the 1970s–1980s. A seminal 1982 study examining 50 R&D teams described NIH as "the tendency to believe [the team] possesses a monopoly of knowledge." The "Invented Here" predisposition—also called "Proudly Found Elsewhere"—describes organizations that systematically favor external solutions, often from lack of confidence in internal innovation capacity. Both extremes impede effective knowledge management.