Absorbing knowledge from crowdsourcing: From acquisition to exploitation, the key role of integration mechanisms

Crowdsourcing (CS) for innovation involves outsourcing problem-solving or creative tasks to the crowd. To benefit from CS, absorptive capacities (ACAP) are critical; they can be enhanced by prior knowledge and past experience with a partner. However, for CS, firms open themselves to undefined, anonymous partners, so the development of ACAP is questionable. Prior ACAP literature describes how internal integration mechanisms foster knowledge absorption but does not address the integration of uncommon knowledge. Prior CS literature acknowledges a wider spectrum of influential internal and external mechanisms but does not study their impacts on ACAP development. To fill these gaps, this study identifies relevant integration mechanisms and their influences on different dimensions of the ACAP process, as it relates to CS for innovation. Five case studies reveal that the influence of integration mechanisms is contingent on the nature of the CS activity. When firms implement creative CS, integration mechanisms influence every ACAP dimension; if they use problem-solving CS, these mechanisms only influence the early ACAP development process. This research thus clarifies the influence of integration mechanisms in the less studied context of uncommon knowledge absorption. It shows which mechanisms firms can mobilize to promote the integration of crowd knowledge and how to support ACAP development processes in CS contexts.