Crowdsourcing and organizational forms: emerging trends and research implications

Finding new sources for ideas and solutions is central to the innovation process. Organizations are increasing the use of crowd and crowd-based platforms to find novel solutions, raise capital, develop new products, pursue collaborative ventures, and develop outcome-based services. Researchers are using crowdsourcing to describe this breadth and depth of organizational level engagement with the crowd for explaining search behavior for innovative action. Despite crowdsourcing's potential, most of the research on crowdsourcing focuses around the end functionality of crowdsourcing in the innovation process (e.g., end-product development, continuous feedback, and collaborative ventures). What is missing from the current research is a certain level of inquiry into the theoretical foundations and their implications for subjects like organizational forms and institutional logic that are central for crowd-level engagement. Against this background, this study identifies emerging research themes within crowdsourcing, and maps out the future research lines.