Crowdsourcing and open innovation: a systematic literature review, an integrated framework and a research agenda

Abstract

In recent years, Open Innovation (OI) and crowdsourcing have been very popular topics in the innovation management literature, attracting significant interest and attention, and inspiring a rich production of publications. Although these two topics share common themes and address similar managerial challenges, to the best of our knowledge, there is no systematic literature review that digs deep into the intersection of both fields. To fill in this gap a joint review of crowdsourcing and OI topics is both timely and of interest. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to carry out a comprehensive, systematic, and objective review of academic research to help shed light on the relationship between OI and crowdsourcing. For this purpose, we reviewed the literature published on these two topics between 2008 and 2019, applying two bibliometric techniques, co-citation and co-word analysis. We obtained the following results: (i) we provide a qualitative analysis of the emerging and trending themes, (ii) we discuss a characterization of the intersection between OI and crowdsourcing, identifying four dimensions (strategic, managerial, behavioral, and technological), (iii) we present a schematic reconceptualization of the thematic clusters, proposing an integrated view. We conclude by suggesting promising opportunities for future research.

Challenging the IC Theory: Suggestions for Some Ways Forward

“…Crowd-sourcing, with its multidisciplinary nature, is a complex phenomenon (Cricelli et al, 2021). It is consistent with the open innovation paradigm (Bogers and West, 2012), as it basically refers to the use of outside sources for ideation, and crowd wisdom or collective intelligence in value creation (Brabham, 2013).…”

“…Recently, open innovation and crowd-sourcing have received much attention in the innovation management literature (Cricelli et al, 2021). There is a successive change occurring in how innovation has been viewed throughout time.…”

“…Based on bidirection knowledge flows, two distinct directions in open innovation process have been referred as inbound OI (outside-in processing) and outbound OI (inside-out processing) (Gassmann et al, 2010;Huizingh, 2011). Inbound OI refers to the internal use of external knowledge, from various innovation sources such as partners, customers, universities, and research organizations; and, outbound OI refers to external exploitation of internal knowledge, through the sale of patents, or through direct licensing (Cricelli et al, 2021).…”

“…The adoption of OI strategies asks for the reorganization of how processes are carried out, that need to be linked to a new and more open and entrepreneurial culture, a cooperative behavior, and a collaborative mindset of the people involved (Cricelli et al, 2021).…”

“…Crowd-sourcing is an innovative way to organize flexibly using the dispersed skills and ideas of a wide set of actors (e.g., organizational members, customers, suppliers, consultants and gig workers). Capturing value from "the wisdom of crowds" necessitates wider participation, which can be supported by crowd management activities, such as platform design, building a crowd culture, and sharing captured value (Cricelli et al, 2021). Consequently, open and collaborative entrepreneurial culture and its associated activities represent an important new facet of structural capital vis-á-vis open innovation models.…”