Publications
Publications
- 2019
Breaking and Reconfiguring the Boundaries Between Domain Experts and Crowds to Solve Complex R&D Problems through Partial Decomposition
By: Hila Lifshitz - Assaf and Zoe Szajnfarber
Abstract
The need for domain experts is all but universally assumed when organizing for scientific and technological innovation. In contrast, we are witnessing a burgeoning of citizen science, crowdsourcing, and other “open” methods based on the opposite assumption that crowds of non-domain experts can drive innovation. In this paper, we revisit the “expertise is needed” assumption and suggest how domain experts and crowds innovating together on complex problems can be more successful than either separately. We stress the strategic choice made when decomposing a complex problem and suggest how to partially decompose it to enhance integration of the crowd’s solutions. Finally, we illustrate and apply our conceptual model on the case of golf as a complex problem, assumed to be the sole domain of professionals.
Keywords
Innovation; Problem Solving; Expertise; Crowdsourcing; Nasa; Experience and Expertise; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Research and Development
Citation
Lifshitz - Assaf, Hila, and Zoe Szajnfarber. "Breaking and Reconfiguring the Boundaries Between Domain Experts and Crowds to Solve Complex R&D Problems through Partial Decomposition." Working Paper, January 2019.