Author(s): Calqueiro, João Tiago Barros Costa Santos
Date: 2011
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/7747
Origin: Veritati - Repositório Institucional da Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Subject(s): Crowdsourcing initiative; Strategy; Implementation; Alignment; Technology
This study analyzes the relationship between the implementation of crowdsourcing initiatives and the organizational impact they have, particularly with respect to the alignment with the strategic interests of the organization. Three companies implementing internal crowdsourcing initiatives participated in this study, providing primary data to support this analysis. After the careful review of the existing literature, a survey tool was developed based on Prof Andrei Villarroel’s Corporate Crowdsourcing Assessment Framework, and in collaboration with the participating companies. Finally, the instrument was administered to a sample of executives in the companies, collaborating with us in this research. Our results indicate that the company’s board of directors plays a key role in the diffusion and involvement of employees in internal crowdsourcing initiatives. However, the board involvement, per se, is not enough for a successful crowdsourcing implementation. The alignment between the initiative goals, the management and organization practices reveals crucial to the success of the implementation. Additionally, we found that technology does not ensure the internal diffusion of a crowdsourcing initiative. Indeed, the diffusion efforts should be taking into consideration the company’s human resources structure and the sector where it operates. These two dimensions should make companies customize their communication to meet the purpose of successfully engaging employees. Finally, we found that companies that interact frequently with external stakeholders in their core business do not have the same level of openness with them in the crowdsourcing initiative. This means that crowdsourcing is not used, at least in a first phase, as a means to involve external stakeholders for innovation purposes. We expect our findings to be a useful contribution to the organization and innovation management literatures, as well as to provide insights for companies that already have or are planning to implement an internal crowdsourcing initiative.
