Crowdsourcing: Analysis of the phenomenon, empirical evidences in Firms

Abstract

The present work aims at studying the characteristics of Crowdsourcing, a business model in which the development of a project, a service or a product is delegated to a group of people not already organized in a team, the Crowd, through the Internet, by an individual, a company or an institution, the Crowdsourcer. The thesis is composed of three chapters. In the first, given the difficulty of defining and categorizing the theme, we start from the distinction of Crowdsourcing from other similar concepts that are often confused with it, explaining differences. Then we analyze the sector in which the Crowdsourcing is currently used, from the point of view of the intermediation platforms between Crowd and Crowdsourcer. In particular, the various aspects of the phenomenon is divided into four different kinds of platforms. The second chapter analyzes the Crowdsourcing business model, focusing on its strengths and weaknesses, in order to understand its potential application, through the use of the Canvas Business Model and a Swot analysis. The third chapter is about the case study: Roamler, we analyze how this firm use Crowdsourcing as a core business, and analyze a model in which other business could leverage on crowdsourcing to gain a competitive advantage.