Crowdsourcing in Sustainable Retail—A Theoretical Framework of Success Criteria

Abstract

Current research about crowdsourcing covers industries like food systems or logistics, leaving out the possible impact of crowdsourcing on sustainable retail. The debate about the sustainable impact of different industries is ongoing, especially discussing the adaption to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations critically. This paper examines the influence of crowdsourcing on the sustainable aspects of retailing by applying a theoretical derivation as well as an empirical observation. After theoretically discussing the linkage between crowdfunding as a crowdsourcing category and sustainable retail utilizing a literature review, a theoretical framework employing the grounded theory approach is constructed. A total of 24 crowdfunding campaigns aiming at the market introduction of new products or services, each worth over 5 million USD funding volume and run on international crowdfunding platforms, have been taken into consideration. The outcome of the analysis is a theoretical framework presenting three different categories, in which successful crowdfunding campaigns impacting sustainable retail excel: sustainable economic behavior, sustainable community management and sustainable market adaptation. The derived model contributes to the theoretical discussion about the impact of crowdfunding and assists practitioners in reflecting about their approach and goal setting prior to and while crowdfunding.

Crowdfunding for Independent Print Media: E-Commerce, Marketing, and Business Development

“…The observed publications use crowdfunding not solely for raising monetary funds, but also for generating feedback and new ideas, as well as for triggering a marketing effect in terms of awareness and reach generation [31,32,104]. Moreover, the observed organizations tend to build up communities by applying crowdfunding techniques, which serve them as a starting point when launching new follow-up campaigns [167,168].…”

“…People can work independently as freelancers, as part of a project team under supervision, or as members of different organizations [56,57]. An organization outsourcing the key processes of the internal value chain to an external crowd is pursuing a crowdsourcing approach [32,[58][59][60]. The external supporters can act free of charge or be paid by the orga-nization [61].…”

“…Crowdsourcing can also be applied to meet the financial needs of an organization [32,60]. This specific usage is called "crowdfunding", and it is being used by organizations, as well as individuals, to fund projects, companies, hobbies, and charity causes [58,66,67].…”

“…Ideally, the supporter becomes an ambassador for the vision of the com-pany or project [103,104]. Crowdfunding has, besides the monetary benefits, a strong marketing effect for the campaign running party [31,32]. In all the crowdfunding categories, the supporters risk the loss of the investment if the campaign runner's project or business fails after a successfully conducted crowdfunding campaign [105][106][107][108].…”

“…Crowdfunding has gained traction, visibility, and acceptance as an alternative means of financing for startups, as well as for small-and medium-sized companies [27][28][29]. Apart from the gathering of monetary funds, marketing effects can also be observed [30][31][32]. Therefore, crowdfunding is becoming a popular alternative to traditional financing options, such as bank loans or investors [33][34][35].…”