Crowdsourcing, more than an innovation partner? A quantitative study of the effects of crowdsourcing on consumer responses

Sammanfattning: This paper focuses on non-participating consumers' overall attitudes towards brands using crowdsourcing activities, specifically ideation contests, in new product development. As technology has enabled businesses and consumers to interact easier, crowdsourcing has become more popular, but research on responses to crowdsourcing activities is limited. The aim of this study is to fill this research gap. As behavioural intentions and attitudes are highly correspondent, this relationship in the crowdsourcing context is also examined. An experimental study with both a familiar (real) and unfamiliar (fictive) brand is conducted to compare the effects of a brand using an ideation contest vs. a brand not using an ideation contest in new product development. The results imply that a brand using an ideation contest in new product development will be perceived as more customer oriented, innovative and unique. However, the use of an occasional crowdsourcing campaign is assumed to be a too small initiative to affect the overall brand attitude and behavioural intentions to a larger extent. Whether there is a relationship between crowdsourcing activities and non-participating consumers' attitude and behavioural intentions is subject for further research.