Title: Cheer the crowd? Facilitating user participation in idea crowdsourcing

Authors: Miia Kosonen; Kaisa Henttonen

Addresses: School of Business, Lappeenranta University of Technology, P.O. Box 20, 53851 Lappeenranta, Finland ' School of Business, Lappeenranta University of Technology, P.O. Box 20, 53851 Lappeenranta, Finland

Abstract: External crowds provide organisations with valuable knowledge and new ideas in a cost-effective way. While existing research has focused on the users and the general characteristics of crowdsourcing, there is still a lack of understanding of how the hosting organisation should organise and govern crowdsourcing initiatives. Building on the literature from the fields of innovation management, knowledge management, marketing and electronic commerce, with real-world illustrations, we develop a framework to facilitate the participation of external crowds in idea crowdsourcing tasks. Our study identifies six management practices related to the different phases of idea crowdsourcing: selecting appropriate communication technologies; defining tasks; evaluating crowd size and its knowledge base; launching tasks and supporting interpretation; giving feedback and encouraging interaction, and allowing user-driven idea evaluations. The study contributes to the literature on innovation management and crowdsourcing, while also offering practical insight into how to better cultivate the wisdom of external crowds.

Keywords: external crowds; innovation tasks; idea crowdsourcing; idea generation; users; consumers; participation; motivation; innovation management; knowledge management; marketing; electronic commerce; e-commerce; crowd wisdom.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTMKT.2015.066073

International Journal of Technology Marketing, 2015 Vol.10 No.1, pp.95 - 110

Received: 07 Oct 2013
Accepted: 29 Jan 2014

Published online: 02 Dec 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article