Not Invented Here
NIH Syndrome
The tendency for organizations towards reinventing the wheel rather than adopting and adapting an existing, adequate solution.
Origin
The term "Not Invented Here" (NIH) likely originated in software development, where programmers hesitated to use external code, believing their own superior. The specific term gained prominence in modern business and engineering lexicon during the mid-20th century, widely attributed to the engineering culture at Hewlett-Packard (HP) in the 1970s and 1980s. NIH syndrome describes a cognitive bias that leads individuals and organizations to reject or undervalue external ideas in favor of internally developed solutions. One research study of 565 innovation projects found that only 16% remained unaffected by NIH syndrome, with the bias positively correlating with reduced project success likelihood.