Crowdsourcing as a mode of open innovation: Exploring drivers of success of a multisided platform through system dynamics modelling

This article aims to explore drivers of success of a crowdsourcing platform. The study conceptualizes crowdsourcing as a mode of open innovation and places such a concept within the context of the sharing economy. Upon this framework, the paper analyses the case of InnoCentive, a successful crowdsourcing platform where innovation-driven organizations search for solutions to their R&D tasks. The system dynamics model frames main InnoCentive business processes and offers a causal perspective on the relationships between platform performance—in terms of users base—and resources structure. The discussion on simulation outputs is carried out through a dynamic performance management view of performance, so as to highlight which factors are crucial to lead crowdsourcing platform to be effective in supporting seekers organization to innovate in an open way, as well as to understand how platform managers may improve such a problem-solving process.