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STRATEGIC CROWDSOURCING

Academic Year: 2013-2014 Trimester | Semester: 4th Trimester Instructor: Prof. Andrei Villarroel, PhD Limited Enrolment: 25 students max. __________________________________________________________________________________ Course Description: This is a project-based course offering insights on the strategic organization of distributed innovation in the context of a globally interconnected society. In particular, it explains how innovative firms are organizing strategically to gain advantage from engaging online with the distributed resources —knowledge, services, funding— held by a global pool of individuals. Through cases derived from original research, including Amazon, Facebook, Kickstarter, among others, the course unveils concepts and frameworks that explain how these organizations engage with ‘crowds’ online. __________________________________________________________________________________ Course Content: Open and online approaches to work and innovation have been widely studied over the past decade in the context of the software industry (e.g. Benkler 2002; von Hippel and von Krogh 2003). Many of those concepts have since then permeated other industries (e.g. Chesbrough 2003; Laursen and Salter 2006), eventually giving birth to an emergent organizational paradigm informally referred to as “crowdsourcing” (e.g. Howe 2008; Villarroel 2008). Through group projects, this course explores the antecedents and consequences of these developments in business practice (Villarroel 2013). __________________________________________________________________________________ Course Objectives: A. Knowledge and Understanding:

• Realize how “crowdsourcing” has already had a dramatic impact on today’s society. • Understand how firms use distributed knowledge for building competitive advantage.

 B. Subject-Specific Skills:

• First-hand experience with tools and methods for engaging with crowds online. • Concepts such as “Collective Intelligence”, “Wisdom of the Crowds”.

C. General Skills:

• Managing work and innovation in a globally interconnected society. __________________________________________________________________________________

 

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Grading: The students will develop innovative team projects, from ideas/problems to products/solutions, supported by online crowds. A final report (10-pages) will be due at the end of the course. Class participation 10% (individual, based on quality of arguments) Reaction write ups (500-words) 20% (individual, due before classes with a case) Project Phase I: Amazon MTurk 10% (individual, commensurate with contributions) Project Phase II: Defense 20% (team, commensurate with contributions) Project Phase III: Report 30% (team) Collective assessment of all project ideas 10% (collective, reflecting the overall outcomes) __________________________________________________________________________________ Bibliography:

• McAfee 2009. Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization's Toughest Challenges.

• Howe 2009. Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business. • Villarroel 2013. Strategic Crowdsourcing: The Emergence of Online Distributed Innovation. In

“Leading Open Innovation”. MIT Press. __________________________________________________________________________________ Biography:  

Andrei  Villarroel,  PhD,  is  professor,  author,  and  speaker  in  the  field  of  crowdsourcing,   innovation  management  and  strategy.     In  2011,  he  was  keynote   speaker   in   innovation   at   the   European   Foundation   for  Management   Development   (EFMD)   Deans   and   Directors   Meeting   —gathering   more   than   300   leaders   of   business   schools   worldwide—,  where  he  addressed  the   importance  of  crowdsourcing  for  the  future  of  organization.    He  has  chaired  several  symposia  on  crowdsourcing  at  the  Academy   of   Management   (since   2007),   and   conducts   research   with  

industry  players.  He  has  been  on   the   faculty  at  Católica-­‐Lisbon  School  of  Business  and  Economics,   visiting   faculty   at   the  University   of  Pennsylvania  Organizational  Dynamics,  visiting   scholar   at   MIT   Center   for   Collective   Intelligence,   and   International   Faculty  Fellow  at  MIT  Sloan  School  of  Management.   __________________________________________________________________________________ Contact: andreiv@ucp.pt

 

 

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