Barriers of SMEs in Adopting Crowdsourcing and -working and Strategies to Overcome Them

Abstract

Despite its undisputable benefits for firms, crowdsourcing and ‐working is currently rarely applied in small and medium sized enterprises (SME). Up to now extant literature provides only an incomplete picture of the barriers that hinder SMEs from adopting crowdsourcing and ‐working. Because of these incomplete insights on this phenomenon there is also a great deal of uncertainty on how to overcome these barriers. In the scope of an interview series with 15 SMEs we explore a range of different barriers. In a second round of interviews with crowdsourcing and ‐working experts (Delphi study) we reveal strategies that may help SMEs to overcome these barriers. The findings from these two studies not only expand the so far incomplete body of knowledge but also provide practical references for SMEs to overcome the barriers and to adopt crowdsourcing and ‐working for their value creation activities.

Keywords: crowdsourcing, crowdworking, small and medium sized enterprises, SME, qualitative interviews