Title: Case studies on the exploitation of crowd-sourcing with Web 2.0 functionalities

Authors: Ravi S. Sharma; Khin Mu Yar Soe; Divya Balasubramaniam

Addresses: Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, 637718, Republic of Singapore ' Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, 637718, Republic of Singapore ' Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, 637718, Republic of Singapore

Abstract: Web 2.0 functionalities have allowed businesses to implement crowd-sourcing for activities that would be better performed by a crowd than any specific pool of knowledge workers. However, relatively little is known about how a business can leverage collective intelligence for competitive advantage. This study uses interpretive field research to validate the findings of a multiple site investigation. An extended theoretical framework to identify the significant dimensions at strategic and functional levels for the effective use of crowd-sourcing is first proposed. Using the framework as the analytic lens, the empathic design approach is used to determine how five successful e-commerce firms deploy Web 2.0 functionalities for effective crowd-sourcing. Our analysis suggests that each business has to customise the functional components based on the strategic objectives that have been designed by its management. These core trends identified may be distilled into design rules for the effective exploitation of crowd-sourcing.

Keywords: wisdom of the crowd; collective intelligence; open innovation; case studies; crowdsourcing; Web 2.0; empathic design; e-commerce; electronic commerce.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2014.065839

International Journal of Electronic Business, 2014 Vol.11 No.4, pp.384 - 408

Received: 20 Jun 2013
Accepted: 02 Jun 2014
Published online: 06 Feb 2015 *

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