The Power of an Enticing Problem — How to Attract More Ideas on Crowdsourcing Platforms
Wednesday April 21, 2021
Faculty members Claudia Kubowicz Malhotra, Arvind Malhotra and Barry L. Bayus were brought together around their mutual research interests in innovation, brands, strategy, creativity and crowdsourcing. Their latest research looks at crowdsourcing platforms, unpacking problem statements word by word to identify the characteristics that attract the most idea submissions. Their analysis shows that managers seeking innovative ideas from crowdsourcing platforms can attract more responses to their problem statements by engaging contributors’ imaginations while not limiting their creativity. Best practices include personalizing the problem, challenging solvers to surpass the status quo, explaining customer needs, asking engaging questions and highlighting tensions to be resolved.
Barry BayusRoy O. Rodwell- Distinguished Professor of Marketing, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School