Abstract
Crowdsourcing is an online problem-solving model that employs collective wisdom. Applied by firms all over the world to harvest thousands of innovative ideas from the general public. Many of these firms discovered how attracting tangible ideas and transforming them into innovation is a complex process. This raises questions of how to best handle these complexities of crowdsourcing? By qualitatively examining crowdsourcing in Statoil and interviewing key personnel, I ve noticed how current crowdsourcing theory is largely based on simple problem-solving tasks, and does not directly convert to technological complex innovations. Technical complex crowdsourcing endeavours should use an customised set of principles and conditions. I ve identified eight key conditions to encounter the complex environment of innovations. Examples of these include: Specify the need , to determine and describe what crowd contribution should entail, Interact with the crowd to proactively interact with the crowd to attract tangible ideas, and Idea management to absorb ideas and transforming them into innovations. These conditions support assembling the right kind of crowd, extracting their input and transforming those inputs into tangible innovations. I argue if Statoil or firms alike uphold to these conditions they will manage the complexities of innovation and obtain innovative results from crowdsourcing activities. By qualitatively examining crowdsourcing in Statoil and interviewing key personnel, I ve noticed how current crowdsourcing theory is largely based on simple problem-solving tasks, and does not directly convert to technological complex innovations. Technical complex crowdsourcing endeavours should use an customised set of principles and conditions. I ve identified eight key conditions to encounter the complex environment of innovations. Examples of these include: Specify the need , to determine and describe what crowd contribution should entail, Interact with the crowd to proactively interact with the crowd to attract tangible ideas, and Idea management to absorb ideas and transforming them into innovations. These conditions support assembling the right kind of crowd, extracting their input and transforming those inputs into tangible innovations. I argue if Statoil or firms alike uphold to these conditions they will manage the complexities of innovation and obtain innovative results from crowdsourcing activities. By qualitatively examining crowdsourcing in Statoil and interviewing key personnel, I ve noticed how current crowdsourcing theory is largely based on simple problem-solving tasks, and does not directly convert to technological complex innovations. Technical complex crowdsourcing endeavours should use an customised set of principles and conditions. I ve identified eight key conditions to encounter the complex environment of innovations. Examples of these include: Specify the need , to determine and describe what crowd contribution should entail, Interact with the crowd to proactively interact with the crowd to attract tangible ideas, and Idea management to absorb ideas and transforming them into innovations. These conditions support assembling the right kind of crowd, extracting their input and transforming those inputs into tangible innovations. I argue if Statoil or firms alike uphold to these conditions they will manage the complexities of innovation and obtain innovative results from crowdsourcing activities.