On the Cybernetics of Crowdsourcing Innovation: A Process Model

Abstract

For small and medium-sized enterprises and large enterprises alike, crowdsourcing innovation has become an important element of a product’s whole life cycle. It is the open call process of soliciting consumers to harvest and evaluate ideas or other intellectual assets. The previous proposed taxonomic framework for charactering this process is mainly for general crowdsourcing process and summarized by empirical study. The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual model for crowdsourcing innovation from a cybernetic and knowledge management perspective by normative research. The authors performed a normative study and deduced five systemic characteristics from the general laws of control system that guarantee ongoing efficiency for the innovation process. The normative research results provide two key contributions. Firstly, general control laws deduce five indispensable characteristics, and they reveal the intrinsic mechanism of crowdsourcing innovation: the knowledge flow controls, which are also the connotation of open innovation. Secondly, the authors have analyzed a five-characteristics system model and tested the model in several classical cases to show the design tricks of cases. This study provides a new conceptual framework that integrates the theory of open innovation and cybernetics to provide a new view of crowdsourcing innovation process design. In practice, this framework guides managers through the design criteria needed to implement a success crowdsourcing process.