Open Minded Innovation: A Case Study on Crowdsourcing for Social Innovation

Abstract: This master’s thesis explores how crowdsourcing and, in particular, crowdsourcing contests can be utilized for the advancement of social innovation. Crowdsourcing contests are growing in popularity as a means for generating innovation across multiple sectors. They are being more commonly used in the social sector to find breakthrough solutions for complex and wicked problems faced by modern society. The utilization of the internet and web-based open innovation platforms to host crowdsourcing contests enables collective problem solving and solution development by inviting the participation of contributors from around the globe. In this thesis study the Early Childhood Prize (EC Prize) has been investigated as a representative case study to explore the phenomenon of utilizing crowdsourcing contests to support social innovation. While the EC Prize focuses on advancing innovation within the early childhood development field, this qualitative study aims to provide insight into this emerging phenomenon as a whole by presenting scholarly literature in the subjects of social innovation, open innovation, and crowdsourcing combined with empirical data gathered from selected actors from the EC Prize. Key findings from the study are presented through three primary areas of focus: tapping user innovation, facilitating the external search for innovation, and collaboration with a distributed network to create social innovation. Additionally, practical implications are presented along with suggestions for future research.