Open innovation and crowdsourcing communities design: a cross case analysis

Abstract. While a great amount of literature has focused on the effects of open innovation and crowdsourcing strategy on firms’ competition and generation of ideas, we know little about how to design an IT artifact to manage the supporting of creativity among on line communities. Based on the Design Theory framework, this paper aims to contribute to this body of knowledge by means of a cross-case study, focused on the design evaluation of two crowdsourcing-supporting IT platforms. We develop a theoretical framework for crowdsourcing communities, aimed to identify how the design characteristics shape the competition to generate new ideas, thereby influencing the crowdsourcing strategy.