Making use of the crowd : Can crowdsourcing function as an enabler for Swedish small – and medium size enterprises?

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to explore the concept of crowdsourcing and how this can be exploited by small- and medium size enterprises in Sweden, to function as a mean for improvement. In order to achieve this, a working conceptual model was outlined and three research questions were formulated. The literature review consist of the origin, concept and process of crowdsourcing, its advantages and disadvantages, similar concepts, as well as the resource based view (RBV) in line with McGrath et al. (1995). This study conducts a multiple holistic case study, using a qualitative method and an inductive approach. Four Swedish companies were interviewed and the gathered data presented in the empirical findings. This data was further compared and interpreted in relation to the literature review in the analysis chapter.  The conclusions of the study are that crowdsourcing can function as an enabler with the premise that the process can enable Swedish SME’s to compete with larger companies. However, some sort of tradeoff is a necessary and furthermore a decision has to be made whether such an initiative should be pursued. Furthermore, the complexity of the crowdsourcing process is determined by the nature of the initiative.