Wisdom-of-the-crowds to enhance innovation: state of the art

Abstract

Our paper performs a systematic literature review on academic and non-academic studies on “wisdom of the crowds” or “collective intelligence” and its possible usage to enhance innovation, with or without financial compensation for the member of the crowd. We aggregate and critically compare contributions since 2004, when the concept was coined, in a conceptual framework meant to assist innovation professionals in sourcing various types of knowledge from the crowds. Key dimensions point towards different approaches according to the type of information/knowledge required, different types of target-crowd, according to company goals and phase of innovation process where knowledge is to be used.

Keywords

• costumer
• consumer behavior
• consumer information
• consumer co-creation
• online community
• wisdom of crowds
• crowdsourcing
• collaboration
• social computing
• information medium
• knowledge management