Crowdsourcing for Device Manufacturers in the Convergent Media Industry

Crowdsourcing has been distinguished as an effective means of open innovation for collecting creative ideas from people who have various degrees of expertise and diversity in knowledge. Online platforms enable open innovation using the crowd in an efficient way in terms of cost and time management. Manufacturers in the convergent media industry have recently adopted crowdsourcing activities because understanding the variety of customers' hidden needs and identifying new market opportunities has become more critical to maintain a competitive edge in the market. However, it is difficult to empirically verify the effect of crowdsourcing activities on the market success of these device manufacturers. As such, this paper attempts to validate the effectiveness of crowdsourcing through qualitative studies including a literature review and case study analyses. As a result of the evaluations, several practical guidelines on how to integrate crowdsourcing into new product development processes are suggested for firms.