How do social media-facilitated crowdsourcing and knowledge integration affect new product development? SME agile initiatives

Abstract

AbstractCrowdsourcing, which is a relatively new phenomenon, offers a variety of potential marketing initiatives for the future expansion of SMEs. The aim of this study is to analyze the impact of social media-facilitated crowdsourcing on the capability to integrate knowledge, which ultimately results in the development of new products. This study utilizes a quantitative-deductive approach. There were a total of 217 valid responses from owners and managers of SMEs who completed the questionnaire. The data was then analyzed using PLS. The evaluation of a quantitative model has revealed that the capability of social media-facilitated crowdsourcing has an impact on the knowledge integration capabilities of small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) and their initiatives for new product development. The authors also discuss additional empirical findings in the discussion section. The study has a few limitations that should be taken into account in future research. The study contributes to enriching the literature by providing empirical results that are rooted in knowledge-based views and practical lenses.

Keywords

• crowdsourcing capability
• knowledge integration capability
• social media
• new product development. Smes