Crowdsourcing has the potential to deliver high-value solutions at very low cost, according to Christopher L. Tucci Professor of Management of Technology at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, where he holds the Chair in Corporate Strategy & Innovation. Christopher is a speaker at the R&D Management Conference 2019.
Writing in his recent book, ‘Creating and Capturing Value through Crowdsourcing’, Christopher explains that crowdsourcing is not a recent phenomenon.
It was used successfully in 1714 when the UK used crowdsourcing to solve the Longitude Problem, obtaining a solution that would enable the UK to become the dominant maritime force of its time. Now the question is how to develop a framework for understanding the phenomenon that can be used to advance this field.
Wise solvers
Christopher takes many aspects of crowdsourcing and explores, for example, when is a seeker better off crowdsourcing a problem internally than externally – is independent more important than ‘wise’? Interest in crowdsourcing comes for industries as diverse at biochemistry to marketing and researchers such as Jeppesen & Lakhani (2010) have concluded that the ‘provision of a winning solution was positively related to the increasing distance between the solver’s field of technical expertise and the focal field of the problem.” Female solvers – known to be in the outer circle of the scientific establishment “performed significantly better than men in developing successful solutions” (p1016).
Crowdsourcing might provide the solution to ‘age-old’ problems particularly with regards to how encumbents overcome the threat of disruptive technologies.
Christopher is to discuss his framework and ideas around crowdsourcing phenomenon at the R&D Management Conference.
More information about: ‘Creating and Capturing Value through Crowdsourcing’ https://www.amazon.com/Creating-Capturing-Value-through-Crowdsourcing-ebook/dp/B07BH2JG39
About Christopher L. Tucci
Christopher L. Tucci is Visiting Professor of Innovation at Imperial College Business School. He is also Professor of Management of Technology at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), where he holds the Chair in Corporate Strategy & Innovation. In 2018, he was Visiting Thought Leader at CEIBS in Shangai, China.
He received the degrees of Ph.D. in Management from the Sloan School of Management, MIT; SM (Technology & Policy) from MIT; and BS (Mathematical Sciences), AB (Music), and MS (Computer Science) from Stanford University. He was an industrial computer scientist involved in developing Internet protocols and applying artificial intelligence tools. Professor Tucci teaches courses in Design Thinking, Digital Strategy, and Innovation Management.
His primary area of interest is in how firms make transitions to new business models, technologies, and organizational forms. He also studies crowdsourcing, Internetworking, and digital innovations.
His article with Allan Afuah, “Crowdsourcing as solution to distant search,” won the Best Paper of 2012 for AMR. He is currently an Associate Editor of Academy of Management Discoveries. He has served in leadership positions in the Academy of Management (AOM) and the Strategic Management Society.
