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Crowdsourcing draws on the collective intelligence of the crowd to collect new ideas for innovation purposes (e.g. Malone et al., 2010; Brabham, 2010). Most of the literature investigating crowdsourcing focuses on populations that are external to an organisation and they often take a business to consumer approach (e.g. Lakhani & Kanji, 2008; Huston & Sakkab, 2006; Lakhani, 2008). Organisations that have followed this crowdsourcing model include: InnoCentive, an online platform where money is offered in exchange for the solution of problems (Lakhani, 2008); Threadless, an Internet t-shirt company, whose designs are created and selected by users (Lakhani & Kanji, 2008); and Fiat Mio, an initiative begun by Fiat through which a car can be created following the user’s suggestions. However, crowdsourcing systems that try to harness the knowledge of the employees within an organisation boundary have recently flourished (Andriole, 2010) and are here referred to as enterprise crowdsourcing systems. By following Vucovic et al. (2010), we define enterprise crowdsourcing as the applicability of crowdsourcing methodology within the enterprise, thus engaging an internal network of knowledge workers. One of the studies focusing on enterprise crowdsourcing was conducted by Bjelland and Wood (2008), showing how IBM leverages its firm-wide intelligence located at geographically dispersed sites through a process called innovation jams to collect ideas from employees and partners for innovation. However, the successful introduction and use of IT systems such as enterprise crowdsourcing systems in an organisation may often be intertwined with the vision and culture of the organisation. Zuchowski et al. (2016) in a thorough literature review show that internal crowdsourcing may be used for management of corporate culture and change. In addition, many authors have investigated the relationship between culture and information and communication technology in different contexts (e.g. Martínez-Caro et al., 2020; Koch et al., 2013; Leidner & Kayworth, 2006; Doherty & Doig, 2003; Doherty & Perry, 2001; Pliskin et al., 1992). For example, Alavi et al. (2005) explore how organisational culture influences knowledge management practices within a large global information services company and one of its knowledge communities. Similarly, Coombs et al. (1992) argue that information is intimately linked with power-knowledge relations and suggest that the three concepts of culture, control and competition provide additional insights for the study of the development and application of information and communication technologies in organisations. Given this background, in this study we are interested in investigating how an engineering consultancy has used enterprise crowdsourcing in an attempt to influence innovation and innovation culture and we will investigate the following research question: “How has an engineering consultancy employed an enterprise crowdsourcing system in hope to influence innovation culture in the organization?
To answer the research question we conduct an i case study of the strategic introduction of an enterprise crowdsourcing system called IdeaExchange at an engineering consultancy for the purpose of influencing innovation and innovation culture at the organisation; thus, contributing to the limited literature on the impact of ICT on innovation culture. Following the presentation of our theory in the next section, we then present the method, a description of the case, and the crowdsourcing process and the analysis. This paper concludes by discussing our findings, and it draws a number of theoretical and practical implications.