Crowdsourcing for Innovation: An overview of the success factors and challenges of the broadcast search process

Abstract

Crowdsourcing is an umbrella term for activities in which the crowd is tasked to come up with ideas or complete certain tasks. The focus of this thesis is on broadcast search, a particular form of crowdsourcing, in which an organization broadcasts an open call to an undefined crowd to find innovative ideas or solutions to problems the organization faces in the innovation process. The aim of this thesis is to identify known success factors and challenges of broadcast search in the scientific literature and to understand how these factors influence the process and outcome of broadcast search initiatives. In order to do this, a framework of the broadcast search process is devised, in which four phases are specified. Next, a systematic literature review is conducted, from which 22 empirical, peer-reviewed articles relevant to the broadcast search process are retained. The articles are then reduced to their essence and summarized in an author matrix, from which 22 unique success factors and 9 challenges are derived. These success factors and challenges are categorized according to which phase of the broadcast search process they influence, and which actors are involved. Finally, the implications and reliability of the results and the value of these results for understanding broadcast search success are then discussed.