The Power of Many: A Structured Framework for Collective Innovation

The Power of Many: A Structured Framework for Collective Innovation

Rick L. Edgeman, Kunal Y. Sevak, Nik Grewy Jensen, Toke Engell Mortensen
Copyright: © 2021 |Pages: 17
DOI: 10.4018/IJRDIS.287875
Article PDF Download
Open access articles are freely available for download

Abstract

Collective efforts of masses provide access to funding and ideas. While such endeavors in a business-to-customer context are well-described, they are less well understood in other contexts such as business-to-business. A literature review that exacts knowledge and inspiration from B2C crowdsourcing and other forms of collective innovation is used. This review generates new knowledge to close this gap and develops a 6-stage innovation framework for Collective Engagement, Intelligence & Innovation (CEI^2) that begins with task specification and concludes with management of inputs generated from the CEI^2 efforts. The framework and the accompanying list of questions may be used by theorists to explore different contexts, and for managers to structure B2B or P2P crowdsourcing more effectively. Contributions of this study include exploration of the theoretical areas of open-source innovation that extend beyond a B2C model, and new ways of effectively structuring CEI^2. Further research may explore the CEI^2 framework through a case study or test it through quantitative study.
Article Preview
Top

Crowdsourcing

Juxtaposed to the “lone genius” is collaboration in inventive teams, social networks, and their hybrid – crowdsourcing (Cooper, 2018) where crowd refers to user participation initiatives, whereas sourcing refers to procurement practices aimed at finding and engaging service suppliers (Estellés and González-Ladrón-de-Guevara, 2012). Coordination costs of such boundary spanning collaborations are offset by benefits arising from knowledge diversity, especially in novel combinations where social relationships, including social media ties, mitigate lack of geographic proximity (Bercovitz and Feldman, 2011). The authors distinguish between two types of crowdsourcing (Blohm et al., 2013):

Complete Article List

Search this Journal:
Reset
Volume 5: 1 Issue (2025): Forthcoming, Available for Pre-Order
Volume 4: 1 Issue (2024): Forthcoming, Available for Pre-Order
Volume 3: 2 Issues (2021): 1 Released, 1 Forthcoming
Volume 2: 1 Issue (2020)
Volume 1: 2 Issues (2019)
View Complete Journal Contents Listing