Title: The crowdsourcing process: an intermediary mediated idea generation approach in the early phase of innovation

Authors: Louise Muhdi, Michael Daiber, Sascha Friesike, Roman Boutellier

Addresses: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ), Ramistrasse 101, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland. ' University of St. Gallen (HSG), Dufourstrasse 40a, 9000 St. Gallen, Switzerland. ' University of St. Gallen (HSG), Dufourstrasse 40a, 9000 St. Gallen, Switzerland. ' Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ), Ramistrasse 101, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland

Abstract: Intermediary mediated crowdsourcing (CS) has become a widely adopted open innovation approach for idea generation in various companies of different industries. Despite many success stories and a large body of literature in the fields of idea generation, online competition and open innovation, little is known about the intermediary mediated CS process in the early stage of the innovation process. An explorative, qualitative and quantitative multi-case study research design was applied to extract the longitudinal data that were analysed in this research. Based on 12 CS projects executed by nine Swiss companies from four industries on the Swiss intermediary CS platform atizo.com, five important phases of the intermediary mediated CS process were identified and described. Additionally, important tasks within each phase which ought to be considered by companies when engaging in an intermediary mediated CS project for idea generation were elaborated.

Keywords: intermediaries; intermediary mediation; crowdsourcing; open innovation; idea generation; early innovation phases; online ideas; idea competitions; internet enabled innovation; Switzerland; idea generation; virtual competitions; online competitions; world wide web; explorative case studies; longitudinal case studies; Atizo; virtual communities; web based communities; online communities; Helsana; health insurance; KPT; banks; retail banking; PostFinance; Swiss Federal Railways; SBB Mobiliar; Energie Wasser Bern; EWB; energy industry; tourism; Youtility; Buhler; KWRO; innovation management; social media.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEIM.2011.043052

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, 2011 Vol.14 No.4, pp.315 - 332

Published online: 30 Sep 2014 *

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