Crowdsourcing for Industrial Innovations − Solutions and Challenges for SMEs

Christof Thim, André Ullrich ORCID Icon, Felix Eigelshoven, Norbert Gronau ORCID Icon, Ann-Carolin Ritter
JournalIndustrie 4.0 Management
Issue Volume 36, 2020, Edition 6, Pages 9-13
Open Accesshttps://doi.org/10.30844/I40M_20-6_S9-13
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Abstract

Innovation activity in the industrial environment is shifting towards product-service systems as a result of digitalisation. Small and medium-sized enterprises have so far focused their development activities strongly on product development. The switch to “smart” products and the coupling to services often requires personnel and financial resources that SMEs cannot provide. Crowdsourcing is one way of opening up the innovation process to external actors and realising cost and speed advantages. However, the integration of crowdsourcing elements faces several challenges. This article shows both the potentials and the barriers of crowdsourcing in the industrial environment.

Keywords

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Bibliography

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