The effectiveness of crowdsourcing in knowledge-based industries: the moderating role of transformational leadership and organisational learning

Abstract

Crowdsourcing provides an opportunity for SMEs to exploit collective knowledge that is located outside the organisation. Crowdsourcing allows organisations to keep pace with a fastchanging environment by solving business problems, supporting R&D activities, and fostering innovation cheaply, flexibly, and dynamically. Nevertheless, managing crowdsourcing is difficult, and positive outcomes are not guaranteed. Drawing on the Resource-based View, we study transformational leadership and organisational learning capability as complementary assets to help SMEs deploy crowdsourcing. An empirical study of Spanish telecommunications and biotechnology companies confirmed the moderating effect of organisational learning on the relationship between crowdsourcing and organisational performance.

Organizational learning and value creation in local governance: the mediating role of crowdsourcing

“…Previous studies suggested that "citizens did not trust municipal e-governments and the value generated by governments was not enough, despite the efforts for delivering digital services" (Valle-Cruz, 2019, p. 15). Crowdsourcing must be effectively managed to obtain good results (Devece et al, 2019). However, crowdsourcing needs a combination of technological, motivational and managerial capabilities (Devece et al, 2019).…”

“…Crowdsourcing must be effectively managed to obtain good results (Devece et al, 2019). However, crowdsourcing needs a combination of technological, motivational and managerial capabilities (Devece et al, 2019).…”

“…The results revealed that crowdsourcing did not mediate the relationship between organizational learning and value creation in local governance. This may be due to the fact that crowdsourcing is indicated as a phenomenon triggered by many different factors (Devece et al, 2019).…”

“…There are several reasons why organizational learning makes it easier for public organizations to reach for crowdsourcing. First, organizational learning facilitates implementation of innovations, particularly technological innovations (Devece et al, 2019). Crowdsourcing is considered a technological innovation that integrates the crowd into entrepreneurial activities (Brem et al, 2019).…”

“…There is some evidence to support the viewpoint that crowdsourcing can be used by public organizations to increase the benefits of organizational learning for value creation in local governance. For example, Devece et al (2019) suggested that positive relationship between market orientation and organizational performance is partially mediated by the use of crowdsourcing. In this context, learning organizations are able to reach for innovative crowdsourcing tools and do so to better respond to the needs of stakeholders (Lenart-Gansiniec and Sułkowski, 2018).…”