Strategies for Leveraging Crowds

The rapid growth of online platforms and the emergence of diverse online communities became an ideal resource from which to generate new product ideas or business solutions. The United Kingdom's Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) had invited the public to choose the name of its newest polar research vessel, never anticipating the awkward moniker that won the online poll. Critical success factors for crowdsourcing projects x To analyze success and failure of virtual engagement tools and crowdsourcing projects, we collaborated with a private company to create a massive dataset in, that allowed us to study over 100,000 suggestions submitted to nearly 1,000 organizations. THE AUTHORS Linus Dahlander Professor and Lufthansa Group Chair in Innovation ESMT Berlin, Germany linus.dahlander@esmt.org Henning Piezunka Professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise INSEAD, France henning.piezunka@insead.edu Companies should be selective about who they invite to participate.