Unleashing the Power of Internal Crowds

• Much is already known about why and what firms can gain from external crowdsourcing of ideation activities, whereas internal crowdsourcing where firms seek ideas for innovation among its employees has so far received less attention. The rationale for using external and internal crowds has thus been assumed to be the same, to collect a diversity and large number of ideas. This article pinpoints that the design principles known from the external crowdsourcing literature cannot simply be used for internal crowds. In fact, an attempt to do so entails a need for considering several tradeoffs. Drawing on the extant theory and the knowledge that we have accumulated over the years from researching large firm’s use of IT-based ideation systems, we identify these trade-offs, propose several design decisions to consider, which are linked to the innovation ambition of a firm, and develop a model of employee engagement in internal crowdsourcing.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Tvärvetenskapliga studier inom samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Industriell ekonomi och organisation

Industrial Economics and Management

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)