En studie om kunskapso?verfo?ring vid o?ppen innovation genom crowdsourcing
Organizations that want to maintain a good innovation capability can seek knowledge both within and outside its boundaries. Opening up innovation processes, through so-called open innovation, allows organizations to combine internal and external knowledge sources in order to include previously excluded perspectives to the innovation process. This study examines how knowledge is created and transferred when conducting open innovation through crowdsourcing. It is done based on Nonaka?s (1991; 1994) theory of how knowledge is created through conversion processes, where implicit knowledge can be converted into explicit knowledge and vice versa. How the crowdsourcing process can generate knowledge transfer is analyzed with the support of Nonaka?s theory and a number of empirically based illustrations. The gathered empirics primarily consist of interviews conducted at companies working with different crowdsourcing platforms. The paper clarifies how the crowdsourcing process gives support for knowledge transfer according to Nonaka?s conversion processes, and that additional knowledge transfer is made possible through the collaborative nature of crowdsourcing. The analysis also shows that extensive planning for how crowdsourcing initiatives should be handled is required in order for them to strengthen the organization?s innovation capability.