IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/techno/v150y2026ics0166497225002251.html

Crowdsourcing creativity: Support architectures and task-knowledge intensity

Author

Listed:
  • Ozturk, Pinar
  • Han, Yue
  • Ren, Jie

Abstract

Finding creative solutions to large-scale and complex problems, such as societal challenges, is often hard. Crowdsourcing has emerged as a valuable tool for such challenges, using diverse perspectives from general society to enhance creative problem-solving. The componential theory of creativity highlights creativity-related processes and domain knowledge as key components of creative output. Drawing from this theory, we examine how creativity support architectures and levels of task-knowledge intensity influence crowd creativity in crowdsourcing contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Ozturk, Pinar & Han, Yue & Ren, Jie, 2026. "Crowdsourcing creativity: Support architectures and task-knowledge intensity," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:techno:v:150:y:2026:i:c:s0166497225002251
    DOI: 10.1016/j.technovation.2025.103393
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166497225002251
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.technovation.2025.103393?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pellegrino, Gabriele & Savona, Maria, 2017. "No money, no honey? Financial versus knowledge and demand constraints on innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 510-521.
    2. Paulus, Paul B. & Yang, Huei-Chuan, 2000. "Idea Generation in Groups: A Basis for Creativity in Organizations," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 76-87, May.
    3. Jan Leimeister, 2010. "Collective Intelligence," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 2(4), pages 245-248, August.
    4. Montag-Smit, Tamara & Maertz, Carl P., 2017. "Searching outside the box in creative problem solving: The role of creative thinking skills and domain knowledge," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 1-10.
    5. repec:eee:respol:v:48:y:2019:i:8:p:- is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Mokter Hossain & K. Islam, 2015. "Ideation through Online Open Innovation Platform: Dell IdeaStorm," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 6(3), pages 611-624, September.
    7. Lee Fleming & Olav Sorenson, 2004. "Science as a map in technological search," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(8‐9), pages 909-928, August.
    8. Chandler, Dana & Kapelner, Adam, 2013. "Breaking monotony with meaning: Motivation in crowdsourcing markets," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 123-133.
    9. Acar, Oguz A., 2019. "Motivations and solution appropriateness in crowdsourcing challenges for innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(8), pages 1-1.
    10. Ann Majchrzak & Lynne P. Cooper & Olivia E. Neece, 2004. "Knowledge Reuse for Innovation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(2), pages 174-188, February.
    11. Kimmy Wa Chan & Stella Yiyan Li & Jian Ni & John JianJun Zhu, 2021. "What Feedback Matters? The Role of Experience in Motivating Crowdsourcing Innovation," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(1), pages 103-126, January.
    12. Gerardo A. Okhuysen & Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, 2002. "Integrating Knowledge in Groups: How Formal Interventions Enable Flexibility," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(4), pages 370-386, August.
    13. Michael A. Zaggl & Arvind Malhotra & Oliver Alexy & Ann Majchrzak, 2023. "Governing crowdsourcing for unconstrained innovation problems," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(11), pages 2783-2817, November.
    14. Ren, Jie & Han, Yue & Genc, Yegin & Yeoh, William & Popovič, Aleš, 2021. "The boundary of crowdsourcing in the domain of creativity✰," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    15. Regina Lenart-Gansiniec & Wojciech Czakon & Łukasz Sułkowski & Jasna Pocek, 2023. "Understanding crowdsourcing in science," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(8), pages 2797-2830, November.
    16. Chiara Franzoni & Marion Poetz & Henry Sauermann, 2022. "Crowds, citizens, and science: a multi-dimensional framework and agenda for future research," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(2), pages 251-284, February.
    17. Vincenzo Vignieri, 2021. "Crowdsourcing as a mode of open innovation: Exploring drivers of success of a multisided platform through system dynamics modelling," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(1), pages 108-124, January.
    18. Eric Schenk & Claude Guittard, 2011. "Towards a characterization of crowdsourcing practices," Post-Print halshs-00439256, HAL.
    19. Moghaddam, Ehsan Noorzad & Aliahmadi, Alireza & Bagherzadeh, Mehdi & Markovic, Stefan & Micevski, Milena & Saghafi, Fatemeh, 2023. "Let me choose what I want: The influence of incentive choice flexibility on the quality of crowdsourcing solutions to innovation problems," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    20. Garcia Martinez, Marian, 2017. "Inspiring crowdsourcing communities to create novel solutions: Competition design and the mediating role of trust," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 296-304.
    21. Ivo Blohm & Ulrich Bretschneider & Jan Marco Leimeister & Helmut Krcmar, 2011. "Does collaboration among participants lead to better ideas in IT-based idea competitions? An empirical investigation," International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 9(2), pages 106-122.
    22. Gillier, Thomas & Chaffois, Cédric & Belkhouja, Mustapha & Roth, Yannig & Bayus, Barry L., 2018. "The effects of task instructions in crowdsourcing innovative ideas," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 35-44.
    23. Eric Schenk & Claude Guittard, 2011. "Towards a characterization of crowdsourcing practices," Journal of Innovation Economics, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(1), pages 93-107.
    24. Scott Horowitz & Brian Koepnick & Raoul Martin & Agnes Tymieniecki & Amanda A. Winburn & Seth Cooper & Jeff Flatten & David S. Rogawski & Nicole M. Koropatkin & Tsinatkeab T. Hailu & Neha Jain & Phili, 2016. "Correction: Corrigendum: Determining crystal structures through crowdsourcing and coursework," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 1-2, December.
    25. Laura J. Kornish & Karl T. Ulrich, 2011. "Opportunity Spaces in Innovation: Empirical Analysis of Large Samples of Ideas," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(1), pages 107-128, January.
    26. Lars Bo Jeppesen & Karim R. Lakhani, 2010. "Marginality and Problem-Solving Effectiveness in Broadcast Search," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(5), pages 1016-1033, October.
    27. Barry L. Bayus, 2013. "Crowdsourcing New Product Ideas over Time: An Analysis of the Dell IdeaStorm Community," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(1), pages 226-244, June.
    28. Scott Horowitz & Brian Koepnick & Raoul Martin & Agnes Tymieniecki & Amanda A. Winburn & Seth Cooper & Jeff Flatten & David S. Rogawski & Nicole M. Koropatkin & Tsinatkeab T. Hailu & Neha Jain & Phili, 2016. "Determining crystal structures through crowdsourcing and coursework," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 1-11, November.
    29. Lee Fleming, 2001. "Recombinant Uncertainty in Technological Search," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(1), pages 117-132, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Natalicchio, A. & Messeni Petruzzelli, A. & Garavelli, A.C., 2017. "Innovation problems and search for solutions in crowdsourcing platforms – A simulation approach," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 64, pages 28-42.
    2. Moghaddam, Ehsan Noorzad & Aliahmadi, Alireza & Bagherzadeh, Mehdi & Markovic, Stefan & Micevski, Milena & Saghafi, Fatemeh, 2023. "Let me choose what I want: The influence of incentive choice flexibility on the quality of crowdsourcing solutions to innovation problems," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    3. Cappa, Francesco & Oriani, Raffaele & Pinelli, Michele & De Massis, Alfredo, 2019. "When does crowdsourcing benefit firm stock market performance?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    4. Boons, Mark & Stam, Daan, 2019. "Crowdsourcing for innovation: How related and unrelated perspectives interact to increase creative performance," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(7), pages 1758-1770.
    5. Dao, Hung M. & Lehmann, Selina L. & Acar, Oguz A. & Deichmann, Dirk, 2026. "Not all success is created equal: The innovation costs of extreme success," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(1).
    6. Gurca, Andrei & Bagherzadeh, Mehdi & Velayati, Rezvan, 2023. "Aligning the crowdsourcing type with the problem attributes to improve solution search efficacy," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    7. Shi, Xiaoxiao & Evans, Richard & Shan, Wei, 2022. "Solver engagement in online crowdsourcing communities: The roles of perceived interactivity, relationship quality and psychological ownership," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    8. Pescher, Christian & Tellis, Gerard J. & Füller, Johann, 2025. "Ideators’ success in innovation tournaments: Participation, productivity, or pressure?," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 335-364.
    9. Ren, Jie & Han, Yue & Genc, Yegin & Yeoh, William & Popovič, Aleš, 2021. "The boundary of crowdsourcing in the domain of creativity✰," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    10. Patel, Chirag & Ahmad Husairi, Mariyani & Haon, Christophe & Oberoi, Poonam, 2023. "Monetary rewards and self-selection in design crowdsourcing contests: Managing participation, contribution appropriateness, and winning trade-offs," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    11. Keupp, Marcus Matthias & Gassmann, Oliver, 2013. "Resource constraints as triggers of radical innovation: Longitudinal evidence from the manufacturing sector," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(8), pages 1457-1468.
    12. Schenk, Eric & Guittard, Claude & Pénin, Julien, 2019. "Open or proprietary? Choosing the right crowdsourcing platform for innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 303-310.
    13. Jiao, Yuanyuan & Wu, Yepeng & Lu, Steven, 2021. "The role of crowdsourcing in product design: The moderating effect of user expertise and network connectivity," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    14. Palacios, Miguel & Martinez-Corral, Alberto & Nisar, Arsalan & Grijalvo, Mercedes, 2016. "Crowdsourcing and organizational forms: Emerging trends and research implications," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 1834-1839.
    15. Reinsberger, Kathrin & Kolbjørnsrud, Vegard & Mehner, Barbara, 2026. "Deliberate exploratory search in technology innovation: Discovering and developing need-solution pairs," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(1).
    16. Pedota, Mattia & Cicala, Francesco & Basti, Alessio, 2024. "A Wild Mind with a Disciplined Eye: Unleashing Human-GenAI Creativity Through Simulated Entity Elicitation," OSF Preprints 3bn95, Center for Open Science.
    17. Herm, Steffen & Callsen-Bracker, Hans-Markus & Kreis, Henning, 2014. "When the crowd evaluates soccer players’ market values: Accuracy and evaluation attributes of an online community," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 484-492.
    18. Hossain, Mokter, 2018. "Motivations, challenges, and opportunities of successful solvers on an innovation intermediary platform," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 67-73.
    19. Sam Arts & Lee Fleming, 2018. "Paradise of Novelty—Or Loss of Human Capital? Exploring New Fields and Inventive Output," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(6), pages 1074-1092, December.
    20. Piazza, Mariangela & Mazzola, Erica & Perrone, Giovanni, 2022. "How can I signal my quality to emerge from the crowd? A study in the crowdsourcing context," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:techno:v:150:y:2026:i:c:s0166497225002251. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01664972 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.