Designing and Driving Crowdsourcing Contests in Large Public Service Organizations

Abstract

Overview: When designed and driven efficiently, crowdsourcing can leverage the power of collective intelligence and yield innovative solutions. To date, the crowdsourcing literature has focused on exemplary corporate initiatives and less on crowdsourcing contests in public service organizations (PSOs), which have a diverse ecosystem. Existing literature has only sparsely studied the design aspect of crowdsourcing as a process. We explored crowdsourcing contests hosted by two large PSOs, Deutsche Bahn and Indian Railways, from a process perspective. We created a six-stage framework for crowdsourcing contests that other PSOs can use. We highlight the need for effective internal and external marketing to enhance the effectiveness of crowdsourcing in PSOs. With structured efforts, crowdsourcing contests can help PSOs cocreate impactful solutions by seamlessly blending internal and external knowledge and efforts.

Keywords::

• Crowdsourcing contests,
• Open innovation,
• Cocreation,
• Public service organizations

Additional information

Notes on contributors

B. S. Kiran

B. S. Kiran is a civil servant pursuing his PhD in marketing from the Indian Institute of Management, Kashipur, India. His current research interests include open innovation, crowdsourcing, and customer experience management. He has coauthored case studies on marketing of services published in the Ivey Business Journal and journals published by the Indian Institute of Management. [email protected]

Rajat Sharma

Rajat Sharma is an assistant professor of marketing at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India. His current research interest is the analysis of the marketing consequences of the internet and digital media on industries and markets. He has expertise in the application of analytics in business, with emphasis on marketing, retailing, and e-commerce. He has published papers in the Journal of Business Research, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Online Information Review, and others. He teaches courses on consumer behavior and digital marketing. [email protected]