How Firms Leverage Crowds and Communities for Open Innovation

There are many similarities in how firms pursuing an open innovation strategy can utilize crowds and communities as sources of external innovations. At the same time, the differences between these two network forms of collaboration have previously been blurred or overlooked. In this chapter, we integrate research on crowds and communities, identifying a third form — a crowd-community hybrid — that combines attributes of both. We compare examples of each of these three network forms, such as open source software communities, gated contests, crowdsourcing tournaments, user-generated content and crowd science. We then summarize the intrinsic, extrinsic and structural factors that enable individual and organizational participation in these collaborations. Finally, we contrast how these collaborative forms differ regarding their degree of innovativeness and relevance to firm goals. From this, we identify opportunities for future research on these topics