Innovation and Crowdsourcing Contests

25 Pages Posted: 18 Oct 2017 Last revised: 18 Dec 2017

See all articles by Laurence Ales

Laurence Ales

Carnegie Mellon University - David A. Tepper School of Business

Soo-Haeng Cho

Carnegie Mellon University - Tepper School of Business

Ersin Körpeoğlu

University College London - School of Management

Date Written: October 17, 2017

Abstract

In an innovation contest, an organizer seeks solutions to an innovation-related problem from a group of independent agents. Agents, who can be heterogeneous in their ability levels, exert efforts to improve their solutions, and their solution qualities are uncertain due to the innovation and evaluation processes. In this chapter, we present a general model framework that captures main features of a contest, and encompasses several existing models in the literature. Using this framework, we analyze two important decisions of the organizer: a set of awards that will be distributed to agents and whether to restrict entry to a contest or to run an open contest. We provide a taxonomy of contest literature, and discuss past and current research on innovation contests as well as a set of exciting future research directions.

Suggested Citation

Ales, Laurence and Cho, Soo-Haeng and Körpeoğlu, Ersin, Innovation and Crowdsourcing Contests (October 17, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3054479 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3054479

Laurence Ales

Carnegie Mellon University - David A. Tepper School of Business ( email )

5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
United States

Soo-Haeng Cho

Carnegie Mellon University - Tepper School of Business ( email )

Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
United States

Ersin Körpeoğlu (Contact Author)

University College London - School of Management ( email )

1 Canada Square Canary Wharf
London, E14 5AA
United Kingdom

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