How can crowds be used in developing complex industrial products? An analysis of factors impacting the usefulness of crowdsourcing outcomes

摘要

Understanding how to plan and execute crowdsourcing challenges of complex industrial products is crucial for receiving useful information and knowledge from crowds. This qualitative single-case study was, thus, initiated to analyse the factors impacting the usefulness of crowdsourcing outcomes. The data were collected by means of semi-structured in-depth interviews with representatives of a crowdsourcing company and a crowdsourcing platform provider. From these data, a number of factors impacting the usefulness of information and knowledge acquired from crowdsourcing were identified, and their significances were evaluated, thereby increasing our understanding of value creation from crowdsourcing activities. The need for novel skills and competences was highlighted. Though more validation is needed to generalise these preliminary results, this study generates a new qualitative understanding of the use of crowdsourcing in the development of complex (new) product development.