Information System Report: Crowdsourcing and Innovation

This report provides an in-depth analysis of crowdsourcing within the context of product development and design. It begins by defining crowdsourcing and its significance in the open design movement, highlighting its increasing use by businesses to tap into external knowledge and drive innovation. The report then delves into a literature review, examining how firms utilize crowdsourcing to generate new ideas, refine product designs, and improve NPD processes. It explores various aspects of design crowdsourcing, including its impact on product performance, the factors influencing its adoption, and the role of user involvement. The report also discusses the application of knowledge management theory to crowdsourcing, emphasizing its potential to enhance innovation and overall organizational performance. It concludes by considering the factors that guide the choice of design attributes for product development, such as technical complexity, usefulness, reliability, usability, and novelty. The report provides valuable insights for academics and managers seeking to understand and leverage the power of crowdsourcing in product development.

Running head: INFORMATION SYSTEM
INFORMATION SYSTEM
Name of the Student
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Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................2
Literature Review................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.........................................................................................................................16
References..........................................................................................................................18

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Introduction
Crowdsourcing is defined as a valuable paradigm which is required for open design
movement. Considering its value, research focus on crowdsourcing in product development and
design that has become stagnant. Crowdsourcing is considered to be an open-source for external
contributor by making use of open call. This has merely become a vital part of the innovation
and product development (Sigurdsson et al. 2016). In some cases, crowdsourcing initiatives have
completely fail as a result of low engagement and participations. Due to development in both
technology and social media a platform has been developed for crowdsourcing being the best
tool in the domain of product design. It has ultimately forced most of the researcher to carry out
investigation in some deep research regarding crowdsourcing for product innovation. In the last
few years, the use of open design models and principles have increased to a large extent
(Kovashka et al. 2016). As a result, most of the business have considered the advantages of
crowdsourcing in developing products. The major key concept in the open design movement is
crowdsourcing. One of the well-known example in crowdsourcing is Connect and Development
that allow the firm to build partnership with innovative minds. This is achieved through
encouraging crowd in submitting both product idea and suggestions from them (Bernhardt et al.
2016). Considering the beginning momentum for the application of crowdsourcing in product
development which helps in understanding crowdsourcing adaptation.
An investigation has been done regarding the point where the organization makes use of
external input for functional design of product development. In addition, this also address the
condition where the managers can make use of crowdsource design. It will merely help the
participation to boost the overall sales of different product.

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Literature Review
According to (Ghezzi et al. 2018), most of the firms around the globe are looking for
external source of knowledge for innovation. One of the popular method is this trend is online
transaction which is needed for tapping into the heterogeneous pool of knowledge for consumer
known as crowdsourcing. There is needed for complete research on efficiency by making use of
external sources for innovation which is the center for identification opportunity. Research in
product development requires the involvement of crowd at the time of ideation. Lang, Bharadwaj
and Di Benedetto 2016 has suggested that involvement in new product development aims in
empowering potential consumers. This will merely help the firm in attracting more number of
participants for generating new ideas. Research development have highlighted that external
knowledge can easily go beyond the opportunity for identification. It is even extended beyond
the opportunity for exploiting stages. Considering this idea, most of the organization are
increasingly making use of crowdsourcing in ideation. Designed crowdsourcing can be stated as
the practice for functional design solution from the crowd (Schemmann et al. 2016). Some of the
popular crowdsourcing platforms like Redclay.com can help the organization in submitting new
design of products. It merely helps in development and refinement of the product design. In this
kind of design, client already has new kind of product idea that completely lacks different
resources for bringing the idea out. This merely looks for input from external sources which is
boarder user community that helps in creating a manufacturable design.
As per (Kwark, Chen and Raghunathan 2017), most of design crowdsourcing platform
emphasizes on manufacturing of design where the study focus on functional design. Use of
consistent along with research will help in studying in the beginning steps of design. This will
help in creating focus on the functional need for product design and product qualities. The main

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focus of this research is all about understanding whether how design of product directly affects
NPD process. In addition, it also address design factors which lie behind the decision of
crowdsourcing. In addition, this also focus on design crowdsourcing which will have positive
impact on the performance of product (Hasteer et al. 2016). An identification has been done with
respect to how boundary conditions are affected. In addition, this also addresses design
crowdsourcing that is helpful in enhancing functional design and attributes for product
designing. Design sources are found to be very much helpful for managers in creating large
number of thoughts by making use of community assistance. In the less promising ideas of
product design will ultimately enhance the efficiency of NPD stages. Instead of discarding new
ideas, most of the organization can make use of external sources for ensuring outcome that is of
high quality (Chang and Taylor 2016). Along with this, some particular design function will help
the managers in enhancing design crowdsourcing. It will ultimately allow them to have a
targeted approach at the time of considering crowdsourcing.
As stated by (Bretschneider and Leimeister 2016), fundamental of knowledge theory of
the organization can be stated as the assumption which the major input in the domain of
production. It is considered to be the primary source of value that is knowledge. The ability of
the organization to create new knowledge and application of knowledge on the basis of
competitive gain. Online mechanism help the firm in granting access to wide, knowledge pool
for crowdsourcing. Marketing literature has completely treated crowd for being the resource base
of new ideas and treating crowdsourcing as a mechanism (Chawla, Hartline and Sivan 2019).
Knowledge management theory helps in suggest the identification of the externally generated
knowledge. It ultimately helps in enhancing the overall innovative performance. Considering the
design crowdsourcing, only little idea can be generated about how the process work in real.

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Design crowdsourcing is very much helpful in development of reality of situation where the
organization will understand either product or solution (Hao et al. 2016). They are merely
looking for an executable form of design. There is list of difference in between using crowd for
obtaining design and using crowd for ideation. The very first emphasizes in given on
crowdsourcing which is an unconstrained for flow of ideas. Design crowdsourcing requires the
crowd to tackle the required focus and iteration are working to solve the same situation. The
solution space in case of design crowdsourcing is found to be smaller. Design crowdsourcing
aims in moving ideas much closer for the development which delivers value.
According to (Palacios et al. 2016), design crowdsourcing is very much helpful in
identification of new resources and kind of design solution. User involvement in the design aims
to user involvement in design which provide number of diversification and need specific.
Managers assure the fact use of crowd led to congruency that lies in between design and need of
user. Manager are merely looking for ways by which can respond to the need of customer (Niu
et al. 2019). This is done in such a way that it can optimize the resources. Most of the
organization come up with ability to make use of design crowdsourcing for integrating
knowledge. It merely helps in developing product that is congruent with the need of consumer.
This will merely help the people in succeed when it enters into the marketplace. Design
crowdsourcing is very much helpful in increasing the available sources which is needed for NPD
(Palmer 2016). Design crowdsourcing is found to be either collaborative or iterative in nature.
Design crowdsourcing is not all about having new ideas but in addition it also focus on refining
and proper tuning of ideas. This merely provides a much higher degree of capability which is
required for collaboration with broader community. It merely highlights one of the major
difference from the traditional crowdsourcing that is the firm can select novel ideas (Xu et al.

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2016). But it does not more collaboration in going forward. In this, suppliers, designers and
client work in collective way by making use of insight collected from design submission.
According to (Uhlmann et al. 2019), design crowdsourcing is not the one which
completely fits the strategy. This requires to be very much cautious and well-designed and
thoughtful for the given approach. Decision of design crowdsourcing is a well-known strategy
which is completely based on product, cost and lastly people (Qin and Zhou 2018). The very
next question is all about how the deign attributes for product can guide the choice for design of
crowdsourcing. A list of research stream has been done for designing product attributes which
influences success of product and acceptance at user end. Considering the technical complexity
can be perceived degree of complexity as a result technical nature of design. New products in the
beginning stages are often found to be complex, which requires to be simplified. With increase in
complexity of design, the cost involved in building it also increases. This is merely done with
wide range of capabilities, design choice and involvement of user. Insight from theory and
practices suggest the point that managers can design crowdsourcing which is needed for
simplifying technical issues of the product (Morschheuser et al. 2017). The point can be noted
that design crowdsourcing increases with growing level of technical complexity of different
product idea. Usefulness is considered to be ability of the product to meet the need of customer.
Product designed at user end will help in meeting the customer needs in comparison to
professional design products. Design crowdsourcing will ultimately help in increasing with low
level of perceived useful for product idea.
As per (Mao et al. 2017), perceived reliability will highlight the fact how the given
product will work considering some points like durability and dependency. This merely
influences on perception for value and intention of purchase. Managers can have look into the

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crowd for proper idea on growing capability. Most of the design proposal on crowd spring make
use of durable and reliable for describing their want which is all about product design. Even if
someone is providing a brief evaluation for durability, usability can be stated as the extent of
effort which is required for product development (Zahay, Hajli and Sihi 2018). User design
comprises of cognitive aspects required for use and interaction within a product. It merely
highlights logical and natural use of product. User can have input for improving the usability
concept which is analyzed in the beginning stages. The product details submitted to crowd
spring, managers will make request for the product which is very much easy to setup. It can be
installed easily which is also very much easy to use. The probability of design crowdsourcing
will ultimately increase the lower level value of usability for product idea (Soon and Saguy
2017). Novelty completely refers to the degree of originality of the products. This merely
demonstrate the user-designed products that has scored much higher in the novelty in
comparison to professional design products. It can be expected that product and ideas with much
lower novelty will have much higher likelihood of crowdsourcing.
As stated by (Xu et al. 2016), use of design crowdsourcing is all about understanding
external inputs at the time of design which is a significant practices. The author highlights about
certain factors which influence design crowdsourcing and its effect. This merely aims to address
the effect of design outsourcing effect on performance along with providing implication for
academics and managers. The knowledge management theory aims to provide contribution for
knowledge management. It merely reveals the point that how design crowdsourcing can act like
mechanism which will enhance the NPD process and its performance. Design crowdsourcing
helpful in identifying diverse sources considering the user based design knowledge. It merely
aims in addressing novel, workable and some meaningful solution in design (Chawla, Hartline

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and Sivan 2019). Literature on ideation crowdsourcing aims in revealing much similar kind of
insight on use of crowdsource as the resource base for some thoughtful ideas. The author has
highlighted the fact that how crowdsourcing can easily strategically tap in crowd during the
important design stage. Design crowdsourcing can create an opportunity by providing
supplement of NPD resources. In addition, it aims to creating a much collaborative process for
integration of some external solution along with-in house guidance. It will merely contribute to
the developing product and its performance. Crowd-sourcing literature is completely illuminated
with design crowdsourcing by examination of effect of new product performance. Product ideas
and need for improvement will be benefitted the most from this iterative process (Wu and Gan
2019). It will ultimately help in crowd-driven refinement and development of this kind of idea.
Product design theory is all about finding certain design elements like usability, technical
complexity and reliability that influences the decision of crowdsourcing.
As per (Qin and Zhou 2018), there are mainly three managerial implications. In the first,
managers fear of losing control for the current design process by opening it up. It merely focus
on the point that it can maintain much better control over the current design method. This aims to
creating a slack for research and development by considering the method of engagement with
different users. In most of the cases, manager encounter pressure for generation of large number
of innovative products. They are merely constrained by limitation by number of natural
resources. In most cases, they can even give priority to most suitable product and ideas and even
discard in most of the cases. Design crowdsourcing is found to be helpful for many managers so
that it can move with much greater number of ideas by development (Kwark, Chen and
Raghunathan 2017). It is all about making use of community that helps in less-promising ideas
which are marketable. Some of the new firms of crowdsourcing like Crowd spring is getting up

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system which is required for generating ideas. This merely provides proper feedback to the
community as it plays a key role in design method. The given feedback can be easily rated and
monitored by crowdsourcing platform. This stands out to be interactive and iterative method of
design and development that moves to production. In the given situation, the true value of
crowdsourcing lies (Chang and Lee 2018). Design crowdsourcing ultimately helps in increasing
the overall reliability and usability right from ideation to the final product. Manager of client
firm focus on enhancing the functional attributes for design. This will help the crowdsourcing
which is an important factor for design resources.
According to (Standing and Standing 2018), an idea has been provided with respect to
crowdsourcing platform and different client firm. It merely helps in much better management of
various process related to crowdsourcing. In the beginning, design crowdsourcing firms are
facing pressure from different members of design community (Uhlmann et al. 2019). These
communities imposes threat on the availability of various low-cost design that is being provided
by crowd. Research highlights design crowdsourcing which ultimately helps in improving the
overall process of design by considering the functionalities by considering iteration and
feedbacks. Design crowdsourcing organization can easily position themselves like intermediaries
which can solve need of the genuine products. Considering the startup nature of the
crowdsourcing, there may be issue in understanding the user-end by taking into the design
process (Schemmann et al. 2016). Most of the result focus on platform for optimum timing for
engaging user at various steps of new product development (NPD). In the last few years, there
has been growing popularity for the third-party as these platform is very much helpful in
assisting different process. This merely helps in providing proper guidelines to managers
(Coelho, Nunes and Vieira 2018). Packaging of new product or its redesign focus on packaging

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of product that can be easily crowdsourced. Crowdsourcing creates a platform that can enhance
packaging and even make it attractive to most of the consumers. Input from crowd can easily
help in reducing time required for marketing of new product by making use of creative resources.
As stated by (Evans et al. 2016), crowdsourcing is a growing trend which requires
engagement from different public bodies. This merely helps in carrying out different activities,
like problem solving and creating new content. Crowdsourcing highlights the act of organization
in taking part in outsourcing that is undefined in network of people on single platform for call. In
addition, crowdsourcing can be stated as the definition that completely distinguishes open-
source, outsourcing, collective intelligence and lastly user-created content (Palmer 2016).
Crowdsourcing is completely different from open source as it is being deliberated acted by firm.
An open-source can requires involvement of people who are completely organized for attaining
the goal in software. The organization can make use of software that is produced due to
crowdsourcing but the organization can have their software which is open-sourced.
Crowdsourcing is considered to be completely different from outsourcing as the difference
completely lies how the crowdsourcing recruits by making use of open call (Wiesner and Vajna
2018). Crowdsourcing is considered to be completely different from UGC as most of the user-
created content is personal so the creation have been once done by employees. Personnel data
which is being uploaded on social network sites like Facebook are merely performed by
employees. This is the main reason behind the fact that no organization does have any kind of
access to these data in the beginning.
As per (Sigurdsson et al. 2016), most of the people have already criticized that
crowdsourcing is just the method which is being used by employees for increasing overall profit
as a result of outsourcing. This is merely performed by public employees which ultimately helps

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in achieving huge amount of cost. There are list of reasons for crowdsourcing in some of the
cases while it is found to be helpful and beneficial for firm in solicit the crowd. The size of
crowd is known to be as one of the possible advantage for crowdsourcing of product design (Hao
et al. 2016). In general, the size of crowd merely depends on the activity that is being outsourced
that is larger than 10,000. The second benefit is that the crowd is completely distributed in
uniform on geographical platform. The balloons are readily accessible in certain location and
easy visible from the nearby location. Most of the participating teams can employ different
strategies that is being engaged by crowd (Kohler and Nickel 2017). This ultimately helps in
verifying the report. The third biggest plus point of crowdsourcing is its diversity. Some of the
large MNCs even cast scientific issues in case when there R&D is not being solved in a website
which is defined as InnoCentive. Currently, InnoCentive is required for solving half of the
challenging issues. The fourth plus point is all about reducing the overall cost of tapping on the
crowd for carrying out the work. Most of the activity is being done by employee or professional
at much high quality. For example, stock photograph of product design will cost around 100
dollars more on each photo. As a result of technological development, has reduced the overall
cost of photography equipment’s in the last few years (Chung et al. 2016). At present, amateurs
can easily afford the same kind of equipment which the professional are making use of. There
are list of reason behind the point that crowdsourcing is being used by organization like an
attractive option.
According to (Forbes and Schaefer 2018), crowdsourcing aims to offer a list of
drawbacks along with advantages. One of the biggest drawbacks of crowdsourcing is the quality
of work provided from the crowd. The overall-skill level of crowd is considered to be much
lower in comparison to employees and professionals. Unlike, the supervisor employee’s crowd