Crowdsourcing is well-known as a problem-solving and production model, where an open call for solutions is communicated through web-based Information Systems to an unknown group of solvers. Individual contributions build sources of data, with perhaps Wikipedia being the most famous example.

Increasingly, organizations are engaging with dispersed populations – by defining the structure, content, and processes of this engagement, organizations are able to create ‘Crowd Capability’, which in turn, serves to generate ‘Crowd Capital’. This is a key resource (a form of Capital) for the organization, enabling productive and economic activity.

This paper explores how Crowd Capability is being used by organizations to interact with the dispersed knowledge of individuals. Arguably the work is one of the first to integrate a wide variety of crowd engaging phenomena into one model, with Crowdsourcing, Wikis and Prediction Markets all discussed.

It is argued that Crowd Capital theory is advantageous to Information Systems researchers (applications used to collect, process, create and distribute data), with opportunities for a crossover with other management policy and economic research.

Read the full paper:

The theory of crowd capital, John Prpić and Prashant Shukla, 46th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2013

Recommended by Fiona Lettice, post by R&D Today admin