Crowdsourcing ideas: Involving ordinary users in the ideation phase of new product development

• Published in: Research policy 2016-07, Vol.45 (6), p.1145-1154
• Main Authors: Schemmann, Brita, Herrmann, Andrea M., Chappin, Maryse M.H., Heimeriks, Gaston J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Crowdsourcing; Data analysis; Ideation; New product development; Open innovation; Ordinary user; Product development; Studies; User needs
• ISSN: 0048-7333; 1873-7625
• DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2016.02.003

•Long-term open idea calls can result in thousands of ideas suggested by ordinary users.•We analyse what determines whether a crowdsourced new product idea is implemented.•Popular and potentially innovative ideas are more likely to be implemented.•Ideators paying major attention to ideas of others are more likely to suggest ideas that are implemented.•The likelihood of idea implementation is not determined by the number of ideas the ideator has suggested. The different roles of users in new product development (NPD) have been extensively described. Currently online idea crowdsourcing, via long-term open idea calls, is increasingly being used by companies to collect new product ideas from ordinary users. Such open idea calls can result in thousands of suggested ideas and detecting the ones that a company wants to implement can be problematic. Empirical research in this area is lacking. We therefore investigate which ideator and idea-related characteristics determine whether an idea for NPD is implemented by a crowdsourcing company. To answer this question, we use a cross-sectional research design to analyse publicly available data from an open idea call, run by an internationally active beverage producer. Our results reveal that ideators paying major attention to crowdsourced ideas of others, the idea popularity, as well as its potential innovativeness positively influence whether an idea is implemented by the crowdsourcing company. Counterintuitively, the motivation of an ideator, reflected in the number of ideas suggested, does not influence the likelihood of an idea being implemented.