Abstract: “Existing theory about the promise of the crowd’s wisdom suggests that large numbers of participants will lead to a large diversity of ideas, which will increase the chance that someone has an innovative idea.  I call this the “Outside-In” approach (some call it the “random variation” approach)  to crowdsourced innovation.  This is the most prevalent approach to crowdsourcing used today, embodied in Top Coder challenges, innovation challenge platform providers (e.g., Brightidea, Hyve, Spigit) and most challenges sponsored by firms.  There is reason to question this Outside-In approach based on group innovation literature.  Moreover, industry analysts report that chief innovation officers are increasingly dissatisfied with the lack of innovation arising from crowdsourcing.  I and colleague, Dr. Arvind Malhotra at UNC, propose an alternative approach, which we refer to as the “Within-Crowd Co-Creation” approach. We ran 21 open strategy formulation crowdsourcing events with 21 different companies, with each randomly assigned to the Outside-In or Within-Crowd design conditions. We found the Within-Crowd approach to lead to more innovative ideas.  I will describe our approach, results, and implications.”

Bio: Ann Majchrzak is the USC Associates Chaired Professor of Business Administration for the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. She is in the Department of Data Sciences and Operations at Marshall where she teaches digital innovation. She holds concurrent appointments as a visiting professor at Esade Business School, Ramon Llull University, Barcelona, and at LUISS, Rome School of Business and Management in the areas of Innovation and Organization. She is also an external expert for the Information Systems and Innovation Group, Department of Management at the London School of Economics.

A buffet lunch will be available at 11:45, and the seminar will begin at noon.