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Tying It All Together: A Theory of Collective Production of Innovation to Inspire Future Research

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Unleashing the Crowd

Abstract

Since we are interested in progressing research, we present a scholarly version of our theory of collective production of innovation in which innovating crowds consist of some participants willing to use their scant two posts to disaggregate their knowledge into creative associations of knowledge batons and others willing to take those knowledge batons and co-mingle them to stimulate creative discoveries. The disaggregation occurs as people break down their causal models, their coherent perspectives, their proposals of need-solution pairs into factual assumptions, short statements of ideas, and creative associations. Since crowds spend so little time contributing to the wicked problem, the more effective the crowd can be at eliciting each other’s disaggregated knowledge in a way that stimulates creative thought in a virtuous cycle, the more likely that the crowd will successfully produce an innovative solution. The implications for a new direction for research on innovation and new organizational forms are discussed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Please see endnotes for Chap. 1, which contains the references supporting these statements.

  2. 2.

    Finke, R.A., Ward, T.B., Smith, S.M. (1996) Creative Cognition: Theory, Research, and Applications. Cambridge: MIT Press.

  3. 3.

    Amabile, T. M. 1996. Creativity in Context: The Social Psychology of Creativity. Boulder, CO: Westview.

  4. 4.

    Scott Page in his Academy of Management Perspective article discusses the concept of superadditivity, when multiple perspectives are engaged so that new perspectives are created. The result is not integration or synthesis in the sense of simply accommodating to different perspectives, but rather, the creation of a new perspective. We do not use Page’s words of superadditivity and prefer co-mingling to avoid any confusion that the issues raised simply add up to a new perspective. Page, S. E. (2007). Making the difference: Applying a logic of diversity. Academy of Management Perspectives, 21(4), 6–20.

  5. 5.

    Bechky, B. A. 2003. Sharing meaning across occupational communities: The transformation of understanding on a production floor. Organization Science, 14(3): 312–330; Carlile, P. R. 2004. Transferring, translating, and transforming: An integrative framework for managing knowledge across boundaries. Organization Science, 15(5): 555–568; Levina, N., & Vaast, E. 2005. The emergence of boundary spanning competence in practice: implications for implementation and use of information systems. MIS Quarterly: 335–363; Star, S. L., and J. R. Griesemer. 1989. Institutional ecology, translations’ and boundary objects: Amateurs and professionals in Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907–39. Social Studies of Science 19.3 (1989): 387–420.

  6. 6.

    Cronin and Weingart (2007); Harvey, S. (2014). Creative synthesis: Exploring the process of extraordinary group creativity. Academy of Management Review, 39(3): 324–343.

  7. 7.

    Reviewed by Dennis, A., & Williams, M. 2003. Electronic brainstorming. In P. B. Paulus & B. A. Nijstad (Eds) Group creativity: Innovation through collaboration: 160–178.

  8. 8.

    Bechky, B. A. 2003. Sharing meaning across occupational communities: The transformation of understanding on a production floor. Organization Science, 14(3): 312–330; Carlile, P. R. 2004. Transferring, translating, and transforming: An integrative framework for managing knowledge across boundaries. Organization Science, 15(5): 555–568; Levina, N., & Vaast, E. 2005. The emergence of boundary spanning competence in practice: implications for implementation and use of information systems. MIS Quarterly: 335–363; Star, S. L., and J. R. Griesemer. 1989. Institutional ecology, translations’ and boundary objects: Amateurs and professionals in Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907–39. Social Studies of Science 19.3 (1989): 387–420.

  9. 9.

    Biscaro, C., & A., Comacchio. 2018. Knowledge creation across worldviews: how metaphors impact and orient group creativity, Organization Science, 29: 58–79; Koskinen, K. U. (2005). Metaphoric boundary objects as co-ordinating mechanisms in the knowledge sharing of innovation processes. European Journal of Innovation Management, 8(3): 323–335.

  10. 10.

    For example, Biscaro, C., & A., Comacchio. 2018. Knowledge creation across worldviews: how metaphors impact and orient group creativity, Organization Science, 29: 58–79; Levina, N. & Fayard, A. L. 2018. Tapping into diversity through open innovation platforms: The emergence of boundary-spanning practices. In Tucci, C. L., Afuah, A., & Viscusi, G. (Eds.) Creating and Capturing Value through Crowdsourcing, Oxford University Press; Howison, J., & Crowston, K. 2014. Collaboration through open superposition. MIS Quarterly, 38(1): 29–50.

  11. 11.

    Majchrzak, A. and Malhotra, A. 2016. Effect of Knowledge-sharing Trajectories on Innovative Outcomes in Temporary Online Crowds, Information Systems Research, 27(4): 685–703 are one exception to this.

  12. 12.

    Cognitive stigmergy is most comprehensively described by Christensen, L. R. 2013. Stigmergy in human practice: Coordination in construction work. Cognitive Systems Research, 21: 40–51; Marsh, L., & Onof, C. 2008. Stigmergic epistemology, stigmergic cognition. Cognitive Systems Research, 9(1–2): 136–149; Dipple, A., Raymond, K., & Docherty, M. 2014. General theory of stigmergy: Modelling stigma semantics. Cognitive Systems Research, 31: 61–92 and Ricci, A., Omicini, A., Viroli, M., Gardelli, L., & Oliva, E. 2006. Cognitive stigmergy: Towards a framework based on agents and artifacts. In D. Weyns, H.V.D. Parunak & F. Michel (Eds). International Workshop on Environments for Multi-Agent Systems (pp. 124–140). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

  13. 13.

    Heylighen, F. 2016. Stigmergy as a universal coordination mechanism I: Definition and components. Cognitive Systems Research, 38: 4–13.

  14. 14.

    Elliott, M. A. 2016. Stigmergic collaboration: A framework for understanding and designing mas collaboration. U. Cress et al. [Eds.] Mass Collaboration and Education, Springer.

  15. 15.

    Bolici, F., Howison, J., & Crowston, K. 2016. Stigmergic coordination in FLOSS development teams: Integrating explicit and implicit mechanisms. Cognitive Systems Research: 38, 14–22.

  16. 16.

    Dipple, A., Raymond, K., & Docherty, M. 2014. General theory of stigmergy: Modelling stigma semantics. Cognitive Systems Research, 31: 61–92.

  17. 17.

    Heylighen, F. 2016. Stigmergy as a universal coordination mechanism I: Definition and components. Cognitive Systems Research, 38: 4–13.

  18. 18.

    Tapscott, D., & Williams, A. 2006. Wikinomics: How mass communication changes everything. Penguin Group, NY.

  19. 19.

    Wilson, E.O. 2000. Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition 2nd Edition. Harvard University.

  20. 20.

    Majchrzak, A. and Malhotra, A. 2016. Effect of Knowledge-sharing Trajectories on Innovative Outcomes in Temporary Online Crowds, Information Systems Research, 27(4): 685–703.

  21. 21.

    Parunak, H.V.D. 2006. A survey of environments and mechanisms for human-human stigmergy In D. Weyns, H.V.D. Parunak & F. Michel (Eds). International Workshop on Environments for Multi-Agent Systems (pp. 124–140). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

  22. 22.

    Malhotra, A., & Majchrzak, A. 2014. Managing crowds in innovation challenges. California Management Review, 56(4): 103–123; Ranade, G., & Varshney, L. R. 2018. The role of information patterns in designing crowdsourcing contests. In C. Tucci, A. Afuah and G. Viscusi (Ed) Creating and Capturing Value Through Crowdsourcing. Oxford Scholarship Press.

  23. 23.

    Marsh, L., & Onof, C. 2008. Stigmergic epistemology, stigmergic cognition. Cognitive Systems Research, 9(1–2): 136–149.

  24. 24.

    Füller, J., Hutter, K., Hautz, J., & Matzler, K. 2014. User roles and contributions in innovation-contest communities. Journal of Management Information Systems, 31(1): 273–308.

  25. 25.

    Heylighen, F. 2015. Stigmergy as a universal coordinaton mechanisms: components, varieties and applications. In T. Lewis and L. Marsh (Eds) Human Stigmergy: Theoretical Developments and New Applications. Springer.

  26. 26.

    Viscusi, G. & Tucci, C.L. 2018. Three’s a Crowd. In Tucci, C. L., Afuah, A., & Viscusi, G. (Eds.) Creating and capturing value through crowdsourcing, Oxford University Press, p. 42.

  27. 27.

    Theraulaz, G. 2014. Embracing the creativity of stigmergy in social insects. Architectural Design 84(5): 54–59.

  28. 28.

    Dipple, A., Raymond, K., & Docherty, M. 2014. General theory of stigmergy: Modelling stigma semantics. Cognitive Systems Research, 31: 61–92.

  29. 29.

    Majchrzak, A. and Malhotra, A. 2016. Effect of Knowledge-sharing Trajectories on Innovative Outcomes in Temporary Online Crowds, Information Systems Research, 27(4): 685–703.

  30. 30.

    Heylighen, F. 2016. Stigmergy as a universal coordination mechanism I: Definition and components. Cognitive Systems Research, 38: 4–13; Parunak, H.V.D. 2006. A survey of environments and mechanisms for human-human stigmergy In D. Weyns, H.V.D. Parunak & F. Michel (Eds). International Workshop on Environments for Multi-Agent Systems (pp. 124–140). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

  31. 31.

    Parunak, H.V.D. 2006. A survey of environments and mechanisms for human-human stigmergy In D. Weyns, H.V.D. Parunak & F. Michel (Eds). International Workshop on Environments for Multi-Agent Systems (pp. 124–140). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

  32. 32.

    Heylighen, F. 2016. Stigmergy as a universal coordination mechanism I: Definition and components. Cognitive Systems Research, 38: 4–13.

  33. 33.

    Dipple, A., Raymond, K., & Docherty, M. 2014. General theory of stigmergy: Modelling stigma semantics. Cognitive Systems Research, 31: 61–92.

  34. 34.

    Dipple, A., Raymond, K., & Docherty, M. 2014. General theory of stigmergy: Modelling stigma semantics. Cognitive Systems Research, 31: 61–92.

  35. 35.

    Ricci, A., Omicini, A., Viroli, M., Gardelli, L., & Oliva, E. 2006. Cognitive stigmergy: Towards a framework based on agents and artifacts. In D. Weyns, H.V.D. Parunak & F. Michel (Eds). International Workshop on Environments for Multi-Agent Systems (pp. 124–140). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

  36. 36.

    Dipple, A., Raymond, K., & Docherty, M. 2014. General theory of stigmergy: Modelling stigma semantics. Cognitive Systems Research, 31: 61–92; Parunak, H.V.D. 2006. A survey of environments and mechanisms for human-human stigmergy In D. Weyns, H.V.D. Parunak & F. Michel (Eds). International Workshop on Environments for Multi-Agent Systems (pp. 124–140). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

  37. 37.

    This builds on the discussion of routines in Feldman, M. S., & Pentland, B. T. 2003. Reconceptualizing organizational routines as a source of flexibility and change. Administrative Science Quarterly, 48(1): 94–118.

  38. 38.

    And, using the defenition of emergence from Mittal, S. 2013. Emergence in stigmergic and complex adaptive systems: A formal discrete event systems perspective. Cognitive Systems Research, 21: 22–39.

  39. 39.

    Afuah, A. 2018a. Crowdsourcing: A Primer and Research Framework. In Creating and capturing value through crowdsourcing. In Tucci, C. L., Afuah, A., & Viscusi, G. (Eds.), Creating and Capturing Value through Crowdsourcing, Oxford University Press, pp. 39–57.

  40. 40.

    Viscusi, G. & Tucci, C.L. 2018. Three’s a Crowd. In Tucci, C. L., Afuah, A., & Viscusi, G. (Eds.) Creating and capturing value through crowdsourcing, Oxford University Press, pp. 39–57.

  41. 41.

    Nickerson, J. A., Wuebker, R., & Zenger, T. 2017. Problems, theories, and governing the crowd. Strategic Organization, 15(2): 275–288.

  42. 42.

    For example, Afuah, A. 2018a. Crowdsourcing: A Primer and Research Framework. In Creating and capturing value through crowdsourcing. In Tucci, C. L., Afuah, A., & Viscusi, G. (Eds.), Creating and Capturing Value through Crowdsourcing, Oxford University Press, pp. 39–57; Dahlander, L., Piezunka, H., & Jeppesen, L. 2018. How organizations manage crowds: Define, broadcast, attract and select. In J. Sydow and H. Berends (eds.) Managing Inter-organizational collaborations – Process View. Part of a series: Research in the Sociology of Organizations; Jeppesen, L. B., & Lakhani, K. R. 2010. Marginality and problem-solving effectiveness in broadcast search. Organization Science, 21(5): 1016–1033.

  43. 43.

    Isocracy (countable and uncountable, plural isocracies): A form of government where all citizens have equal political power (Wikipedia); Kazamias, A. M. (1961). Meritocracy and Isocracy in American Education: Retrospect and Prospect. In The Educational Forum (Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 345–354). Taylor & Francis Group.

  44. 44.

    Theraulaz, G. 2014. Embracing the creativity of stigmergy in social insects. Architectural Design 84(5): 54–59.

  45. 45.

    Thank you to John Wentworth for this wonderful idea.

  46. 46.

    Lifshitz-Assaf, H. (2018). Dismantling knowledge boundaries at NASA: The critical role of professional identity in open innovation. Administrative science quarterly, 63(4), 746–782.

  47. 47.

    Mortensen, M., & Hinds, P. (2002). Fuzzy teams: Boundary disagreement in distributed and collocated teams. Distributed work, 284–308.

  48. 48.

    A. Cockburn, Agile software development, Reading, MA, USA: Addison-Wesley, 2002.

  49. 49.

    Malhotra, A., Majchrzak, A., Carman, R., & Lott, V. (2001). Radical innovation without collocation: A case study at Boeing-Rocketdyne. MIS quarterly, 229–249.

  50. 50.

    Lovelace, K., Shapiro, D. L., & Weingart, L. R. (2001). Maximizing cross-functional new product teams’ innovativeness and constraint adherence: A conflict communications perspective. Academy of management journal, 44(4), 779–793.

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    Baer M, Dirks KT, Nickerson JA. 2013. Microfoundations of strategic problem formulation. Strategic Management Journal 34: 197–214.

  52. 52.

    Majchrzak, A., More, P. H., & Faraj, S. (2012). Transcending knowledge differences in cross-functional teams. Organization Science, 23(4), 951–970.

  53. 53.

    Page, S. E. (2007). Making the difference: Applying a logic of diversity. Academy of Management Perspectives, 21(4), 6–20.

  54. 54.

    Saving Our Oceans: Tackling Grand Challenges Through Crowdsourcing by Amanda J. Porter, Philipp Tuertscher, & Marleen Huysman, to be published in Journal of Management.

  55. 55.

    Thank you to John Wentworth for this interesting idea.

  56. 56.

    This notion of the burstiness of the crowd was raised by Riedl, C., & Woolley, A. W. (2017). Teams vs. crowds: A field test of the relative contribution of incentives, member ability, and emergent collaboration to crowd-based problem solving performance. Academy of Management Discoveries, 3(4), 382–403.

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    Lakhani, K.R., Fayard, A. L., Levina, N., & Pokrywa, S. H. (2012). OpenIDEO. Harvard Business School Technology & Operations Mgt. Unit Case (612-066).

  58. 58.

    Garud, R., Kumaraswamy, A., & Sambamurthy, V. 2006. Emergent by design: Performance and transformation at Infosys Technologies. Organization Science, 17(2): 277–286.

  59. 59.

    Stark, D. 1999. Heterarchy: Distributing intelligence and organizing diversity. In J.H. Clippiner & E. Dyson (Eds.) The Biology of Business: Decoding the natural laws of enterprise, SF: Jossey-Bass. 153–179.

  60. 60.

    Garud, R., Jain, S., & Tuertscher, P. 2008. Incomplete by design and designing for incompleteness. Organization Studies, 29(3), 351–371.

  61. 61.

    Majchrzak, A., Griffith, T., Reez, D., Alexy, O. 2018. Organizations Designed for Grand Challenges: Generative Dilemmas and Implications for Organization Design Theory. Academy of Management Discoveries, 4(4): 472–496.

  62. 62.

    Ashkenas, R., Ulrich, D., Jick, T., & Kerr, S. 2015. The Boundaryless Organization: Breaking the chains of organizational structure. John Wiley & Sons.

  63. 63.

    Altman, E. J., Nagle, F., & Tushman, M. 2014. Innovating without information constraints. Organizations, communities, and innovation when information costs approach zero. In C. Shalley, M. A. Hitt, & J. Zhou (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship: 353–384. Oxford Handbooks Online.

  64. 64.

    As suggested by Vedres, B., & Stark, D. 2010. Structural folds: Generative disruption in overlapping groups. American Journal of Sociology, 115(4): 1150–1190.

  65. 65.

    As suggested by Tsoukas, H. 2009. A dialogical approach to the creation of new knowledge in organizations. Organization Science, 20(6): 941–957.

  66. 66.

    As suggested by Nickerson, J. A., Wuebker, R., & Zenger, T. 2017. Problems, theories, and governing the crowd. Strategic Organization, 15(2): 275–288.

  67. 67.

    Dahlander, L., Piezunka, H., & Jeppesen, L. 2018. How organizations manage crowds: Define, broadcast, attract and select. In J. Sydow and H. Berends (eds.) Managing Inter-organizational collaborations – Process View. Part of a series: Research in the Sociology of Organizations; Jeppesen, L. B., & Lakhani, K. R. 2010. Marginality and problem-solving effectiveness in broadcast search. Organization Science, 21(5): 1016–1033.

  68. 68.

    Kane, A. A., & Levina, N. 2017. ‘Am I Still One of Them?’: Bicultural Immigrant Managers Navigating Social Identity Threats When Spanning Global Boundaries. Journal of Management Studies, 54(4): 540–577; Levina, N., & Vaast, E. 2005. The emergence of boundary spanning competence in practice: implications for implementation and use of information systems. MIS Quarterly: 335–363.

  69. 69.

    E.g., Dahlander, L., Piezunka, H., & Jeppesen, L. 2018. How organizations manage crowds: Define, broadcast, attract and select. In J. Sydow and H. Berends (eds.) Managing Inter-organizational collaborations – Process View. Part of a series: Research in the Sociology of Organizations; Levina and Fayard (2018).

  70. 70.

    Malhotra, A., Majchrzak, A., & Niemiec, R. M. 2017. Using public crowds for open strategy formulation: mitigating the risks of knowledge gaps. Long Range Planning, 50(3): 397–410; Malhotra, A., Majchrzak, A., Kesebi, L., & Looram, S. 2017. Developing innovative solutions through internal crowdsourcing. MIT Sloan Management Review, 58(4): 73.

  71. 71.

    Levina, N. & Fayard, A. L. 2018. Tapping into diversity through open innovation platforms: The emergence of boundary-spanning practices. In Tucci, C. L., Afuah, A., & Viscusi, G. (Eds.) Creating and Capturing Value through Crowdsourcing, Oxford University Press.

  72. 72.

    That Tsoukas, H. 2009. A dialogical approach to the creation of new knowledge in organizations. Organization Science, 20(6): 941–957 argues.

  73. 73.

    Afuah, A., & Tucci, C. L. (2012). Crowdsourcing as a solution to distant search. Academy of Management Review, 37(3): 355–375; Dahlander, L., Piezunka, H., & Jeppesen, L. 2018. How organizations manage crowds: Define, broadcast, attract and select. In J. Sydow and H. Berends (eds.) Managing Inter-organizational collaborations – Process View. Part of a series: Research in the Sociology of Organizations.

  74. 74.

    Majchrzak, A., Griffith, T., Reez, D., Alexy, O. (2018) Organizations Designed for Grand Challenges: Generative Dilemmas and Implications for Organization Design Theory. Academy of Management Discoveries, 4(4), 472–496.

  75. 75.

    Lakhani KR and Panetta JA (2007) The principles of distributed innovation. Innovations 2(3): 97–112; Kornberger, M. (2017). The visible hand and the crowd: Analyzing organization design in distributed innovation systems. Strategic Organization, 15(2), 174–193.

  76. 76.

    Garud, R., Jain, S., & Tuertscher, P. (2008). Incomplete by design and designing for incompleteness. Organization studies, 29(3), 351–371.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Ann Majchrzak

  2. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Arvind Malhotra

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  1. Ann Majchrzak
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Correspondence to Ann Majchrzak .

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Majchrzak, A., Malhotra, A. (2020). Tying It All Together: A Theory of Collective Production of Innovation to Inspire Future Research. In: Unleashing the Crowd. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25557-2_8

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