earticle

영어

This paper examines how the wisdom of crowds can be leveraged in crowdsourced ideation-based product innovation where individual consumers co-create value together with firms. Specifically, we examine how the distribution of contribution equality (DCI) mediates the effect of interdependence on ideation project success. To address the research question we collected data from Quirky platform, which leverages the crowd in the ideation phase of new product development. The analysis of Quirky’s product co-development project affiliation networks (i.e., a two-mode network constructed from inventor and co-inventor collaborations) shows that the mechanism through which interdependence affects the outcome and find that (long-tail) distributional pattern of contribution inequality mediates the relationship between interdependence and crowdsourcing performance, such that higher is DCI, lower is project success. This study provides practical implications for crowdsourcing platform designers by demonstrating the importance of guiding and managing project team composition in crowdsourced ideation projects.