Implementation of Crowdsourcing into Business and Innovation Strategies : A Case Study at Bombardier Transportation, Germany

RESUME : Le crowdsourcing regroupe un ensemble de nouvelles pratiques d’affaires touchant l’innovation et la collaboration. Il offre aux entreprises de multiples avantages, notamment l'evolutivite de la force de travail, la diversite des contributeurs provenant de l’externe (la « foule »), une variete d’idees nouvelles et des solutions rapides. Le crowdsourcing peut aussi entrainer d’impressionnantes economies pour les entreprises qui l’utilisent, de meme qu’une visibilite accrue. De plus, comme le crowdsourcing favorise un contact etroit avec des clients potentiels, il peut offrir une meilleure lecture du marche et consequemment, alimenter positivement les strategies organisationnelles necessaires a l’innovation. Comme pratique d’innovation, le crowdsourcing a gagne en popularite au cours de la derniere decennie. Meme s’il s’agit d’une tendance relativement recente, il a deja recu beaucoup d’attention de la part des chercheurs. La revue de la litterature realisee dans ce projet de maitrise revele en effet que cette pratique est deja utilisee dans plusieurs secteurs de l'industrie, bien que ce soit surtout le cas dans les industries de biens de consommation. Bien qu’enrichi de descriptions pertinentes liees au crowdsourcing, la litterature demeure relativement pauvre de donnees empiriques touchant l'impact de cette pratique sur les modeles d’affaires. Dans ce contexte, l’objectif general de ce memoire consiste a analyser la mise en œuvre du crowdsourcing comme strategie d’innovation et d’affaires d'une entreprise reelle. Au vu des connaissances actuelles sur le crowdsourcing et des objectifs de la recherche, l’etude de cas qualitative, exploratoire et descriptive fut selectionnee comme la principale strategie de recherche. Plus precisement, le cas etudie (Bombardier Transportation) fut selectionne dans une industrie de biens industriels, nommement l’industrie de l’equipement de transport ferroviaire. Cette societe ayant mis en place trois initiatives de crowdsourcing depuis 2009, elle s’est avere un choix pertinent pour repondre aux objectifs de recherche. Cette etude de cas vise egalement a examiner comment l’implantation du crowdsourcing peut influencer la culture organisationnelle d’une entreprise, d'analyser diverses decisions technologiques qui soutiennent la mise en œuvre du crowdsourcing, d'identifier les obstacles a la mise en œuvre, et de comprendre les limites de ce modele. Cette etude apporte une contribution importante aux connaissances actuelles sur le crowdsourcing en examinant son utilisation comme approche d’innovation et d’affaires dans un secteur encore peu etudie. Plus specifiquement, la recherche contribue au corpus theorique actuel en decrivant et en analysant trois initiatives reussies de crowdsourcing chez BT ; ces initiatives portent sur deux types de crowdsourcing (interne et externe) et dont les finalites different (creativite et resolution de problemes). L'etude examine aussi l'impact reel de crowdsourcing sur l’entreprise et sur ses strategies d'innovation. En termes pratiques, cette etude peut s’averer instructive et utile pour des gestionnaires qui envisageraient la mise en œuvre du crowdsourcing comme element d’une strategie d’innovation. En particulier pour les secteurs de biens industriels, le cas BT permet de comprendre les avantages et contraintes de telles pratiques au sein des organisations. Les resultats de cette etude et les analyses comparatives peuvent aussi aider les gestionnaires a identifier, reduire, attenuer ou eviter les effets negatifs et des pratiques inappropriees de crowdsourcing, tout en les aidant a atteindre leurs objectifs d'innovation et de collaboration d’une maniere plus efficace et efficiente. ----------ABSTRACT : Crowdsourcing is an emerging model of collaboration and innovation. As such, it provides firms with multiple advantages, notably work force scalability, diversity of crowd workers, a variety of novel ideas, and rapid solutions. Moreover, crowdsourcing can result in impressive cost savings for businesses using this model. Firms also benefit from the additional publicity involved. In addition, because crowdsourcing provides firms with access to future customers, they can make more accurate market predictions and adjust their strategies to crowd expectations. Crowdsourcing gained significant popularity during the last decade. Although it is a relatively new trend, it has already received attention in the literature. The literature review under this project revealed that crowdsourcing is used by firms operating in almost all industry sectors, but mostly by firms in the consumer goods industries. Because the literature on crowdsourcing was sparse with respect to empirical evidence of the impact of crowdsourcing on firms’ business and innovation strategies, the general objective of this study was to assess the impact of implementing crowdsourcing into the business and innovation strategies of a company. The research was also particularly aimed to study the implementation of crowdsourcing in a firm representing a non-consumer goods industry. Bombardier Transportation (BT), Germany was chosen because it met the criteria for selection of a firm for the case study, but also because the preliminary researches showed that this company had used both internal and external crowdsourcing for several innovation initiatives since 2009.The intention was also to examine whether or not crowdsourcing can change a firm’s culture, to analyze the technological settings that support crowdsourcing, to identify obstacles to crowdsourcing implementation, and to understand the limitations of the model, and thus to contribute to the empirical knowledge on these topics. Based on the research goals and the extent of the current knowledge on crowdsourcing, a qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive case study was deemed an appropriate research strategy. An inductive data analysis approach was used as it is not based on a pre-existing theoretical framework that shapes the research process. Instead, theories emerge in light of the collected data and the data analysis. This study makes a substantial contribution to the theoretical knowledge on crowdsourcing by examining the use of crowdsourcing as a business and innovation approach in a non-consumer goods industry such as railway manufacturing. The research also contributes to the theoretical knowledge by describing and analyzing BT’s three crowdsourced initiatives that present examples of successful implementation of crowdsourcing, including creative, problem-solving, and collaborative elements of both internal and external crowdsourcing. The study examines the real-life impact of crowdsourcing on a firm’s business and innovation strategies in terms of strategic foundations, processes, and the business and innovation benefits. In practical terms, the results of this study can help managers identify successful practices and processes for implementing both internal and external crowdsourcing as a firm innovation and collaboration method. Moreover, managers, especially those working in other or similar non-consumer goods industries, may be encouraged to give crowdsourcing a try, as they would be able to learn from the experience of a leading multinational organization, such as Bombardier Transportation. The study results and comparative analyses can also help managers identify, lessen, mitigate, or avoid the negative and non-constructive effects of inappropriate crowdsourcing practices, and can help them achieve their innovation and collaboration goals more efficiently and effectively.