Divergent Innovation: Directing the Wisdom of the Crowd to Tackle Societal Challenges

Chuhan Cao, Jiantao Zhu, Bingqing Xiong, Zhao Cai, Eric Lim, Hefu Liu, Chee Wee Tan

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Crowdsourcing is acknowledged as a promising avenue for addressing societal challenges by drawing on the wisdom of the crowd to offer diverse solutions to complex problems. Advancing a new conceptual framework of ‘divergent innovation’ which delineates between topic and quality divergence as focal metrics of performance when crowdsourcing for solutions to societal challenges, this study investigates the impacts of four ideation stimuli on divergent innovation. These four stimuli include task description concreteness, resource richness, topic entropy, and judging criteria comprehensiveness. Empirical analysis based on data sourced from an online crowd-ideation platform reveals that task description concreteness negatively affects topic divergence but positively influences quality divergence, whereas resource richness positively affects topic divergence but negatively influences quality divergence. Additionally, the relationship between topic entropy and topic divergence is U-shaped, with no significant impact on quality divergence. These findings contribute to extant literature on crowdsourcing and offer invaluable insights for practitioners.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationInternational Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2023
Subtitle of host publication"Rising like a Phoenix: Emerging from the Pandemic and Reshaping Human Endeavors with Digital Technologies"
PublisherAssociation for Information Systems
ISBN (Electronic)9781713893622
Publication statusPublished - 2023
Event44th International Conference on Information Systems: Rising like a Phoenix: Emerging from the Pandemic and Reshaping Human Endeavors with Digital Technologies, ICIS 2023 - Hyderibad, India
Duration: 10 Dec 202313 Dec 2023

Publication series

NameInternational Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2023: "Rising like a Phoenix: Emerging from the Pandemic and Reshaping Human Endeavors with Digital Technologies"

Conference

Conference44th International Conference on Information Systems: Rising like a Phoenix: Emerging from the Pandemic and Reshaping Human Endeavors with Digital Technologies, ICIS 2023
Country/TerritoryIndia
CityHyderibad
Period10/12/2313/12/23

Keywords

  • Collective Intelligence
  • Crowdsourcing
  • Divergent Thinking
  • Ideation Stimuli
  • Societal Challenges

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Science Applications
  • Information Systems

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