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Authors
Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
The basic elements subtending this study are two: the crowd and the organization, extending
on Villarroel (2008, 2013). In the last 20 years these two components of the business
landscape were combined creating several different outcomes. In the early days of
crowdsourcing, companies were exploiting the crowd’s knowledge by running contests in
order to achieve a specific solution (e.g. InnoCentive in 2001). Then some companies started
to create one of their own division interlay outsourced to the crowd. Today some
organizations are completely crowd dependent in almost all their activities. In this study the
focus is on the last combination, the most recent, where the firm and the crowd are bilaterally
interdependent. More specifically, this study analyzed and classified what we call the Hybrid
Crowdsourcing Organization (HCO). Using a case study methodology this new firm
organization is studied. The analysis is based on the source of competitive advantage, its
value chain and its inter-organizational relationship. A comparison is made with traditional
organizations through a deep and broad case study approach (Eisenhardt 1989). The theories
about the nature of the firm; value chain; and competitive advantage are reconsidered as they
apply (or not) to HCO. This study shows how organizational competences can drive new
sources of efficiencies by a firm’s design that is able to leverage resources in a more efficient
way. The HCO organizational competences build new efficiencies impacting on 3 different
dimensions: the market, the industry and the company. We discuss the resources leveraged in
each of these dimensions, which results in a source of competitive advantage of HCO.
Description
Keywords
Strategic crowdsourcing Corporate strategy Inter-organization relationship Nature of the firm Competitive advantage Value chain Incentives Organizational competences