Crowdsourcing in holistic innovation management (RQ1)

The main question (research question 1) is, “How crowdsourcing is generically utilized in holistic innovation management?” This subchapter discusses and an-swers the research question based on the publication titled “Integrating Crowdsourcing with Holistic Innovation Management” (Sivula and Kantola 2016b). The publication is a conceptual article; it summarizes the results and con-structs the GCM for holistic innovation management. Moreover, the publication includes broad verification of the model which was carried out in six different sized organizations which are acting in several industries.

Objective

Innovations are drivers of modern businesses and innovations cannot exist with-out customers who are willing to buy the new product or service. Crowdsourcing can be employed to create innovations which have more demand on the markets.

The objective of the study was to develop the GCM for a holistic innovation man-agement model. The model is constructed using the manman-agement areas which are crucial for an organization’s innovation activities and is constructed from earlier empirical research conducted by Sivula and Kantola (2014a; 2014b; 2014c;

2016a) and Sivula et al. (2014). This publication can be considered mainly con-ceptual. However, the second objective of this research was to broadly verify the developed model. This publication provides the main contribution of the disserta-tion and answers the main research quesdisserta-tion of the study.

Summary of findings

The GCM for the holistic innovation management model is constructed with the empirical results from earlier studies which were implemented as a part of the dissertation. The model includes three management areas and crowdsourcing uti-lization in these areas. The model highlights the holistic aspect of innovation management. Producing innovation is not the responsibility of one function of an organization. Thus, all innovation-related activities should be capable of innova-tion; in this study these activities are strategic management, innovation

manage-ment and project managemanage-ment. Moreover, crowdsourcing can be utilized effec-tively in these management areas as the empirical results of the study indicate.

The GCM for holistic innovation management is illustrated in Figure 15.

Figure 15. The GCM for holistic innovation management (Sivula and Kantola 2016b)

The model highlights continuous improvement and development as illustrated in Figure 15. Innovations and projects lead to subsequent innovations and projects.

Innovation development will not stop as long as the organization exists. The heart of the model is strategic management which can be divided into strategy formula-tion and implementaformula-tion. Strategy is formulated dynamically or statically, and implemented after formulation. The actions of an organization should follow strategies. Strategy formulators and executors can utilize internal and external crowdsourcing, for example, to extend their knowledge.

Every innovation management phase can utilize crowdsourcing in several ways during the process, as the results indicate. An organization can implement multi-ple innovations at the same time and they are usually immulti-plemented as projects.

Project management is the management of the lifecycle of a project and it in-cludes four main phases. Every phase may be iterative and move back to a previ-ous phase. Project management can utilize crowdsourcing in several ways during a project lifecycle, as earlier subchapters have presented.

Utilized crowdsourcing implementation methods are related to the organization, its industry and its products and services. The GCM for holistic innovation man-agement is a generic model and it can be utilized in every organization. On the other hand, an organization should consider which parts of the model could be useful in its activities. Thus, not every crowdsourcing implementation method will fit every organization. On the other hand, every organization requires knowledge, resources and funding in its innovation activities, and crowdsourcing can be the answer to several challenges raised in these areas.

Answer to the research question

The main and most important research question for the dissertation is, “How crowdsourcing is generically utilized in holistic innovation management?”

Crowdsourcing can be utilized in multiple ways in an organization’s activities in a wide range of industry sectors, as the results in the study has presented. An organ-ization should utilize crowdsourcing in different management areas, internally and externally, to produce value for holistic innovation management.

Crowdsourcing implementation methods can be divided into three different cate-gories. Knowledge focused crowdsourcing implementation methods provides new knowledge from the crowd for an organization. Resource focused crowdsourcing provides a required contribution from the crowd to an organization’s project, for instance. Moreover, crowdsourcing can be funding focused where the crowd is funding, for example, an organization’s development project. Nevertheless, all of these implementations can be utilized in the innovation management areas of an organization.

The GCM for holistic innovation management highlights three different ment areas: strategic management, innovation management and project manage-ment. Strategy is the most important aspect of an organization; which innovation activities should as well acknowledge. Crowdsourcing can be utilized in several ways in strategy formulation and implementation, as the results of this study

pre-sent. Innovation management highlights the process of innovation creation. Pro-ject management is utilized for implementing, for instance, a new product or ser-vice.

The management models utilized in this study are generic and can be used in sev-eral industries and organizations. The GCM for the holistic innovation manage-ment model is generic and it can be employed in a wide range of industries. On the other hand, an organization should consider which tasks are possible to crowdsource and utilize the model in a way that would produce the most value for an organization and its holistic innovation management.