Idea crowdsourcing platforms for new product development: A study of idea quality and the number of submitted ideas

Organizational innovation communities for new product development (NPD) have become an integral part of organizations' strategy to find innovative ideas for new products with the help of their consumers. The success of these communities largely depends on users' idea submission and idea quality. While more ideas will increase the chance of finding novel ideas, more low-quality ideas will increase the costs of finding novel ideas. Although the idea crowdsourcing literature has grown significantly, it is relatively new and focused on idea crowdsourcing platforms for product improvement ideas where individuals submit ideas to fix software bugs or to request new features. By examining idea quality (measured by vote) and idea submission in idea crowdsourcing platforms for NPD, we aim to enrich our understanding of these contexts. Furthermore, we review the literature from two perspectives: individuals' own experiences (past performance) and the experiences of others (interaction with peers' ideas) and identify several key gaps in the literature. Using data from a pioneer innovation community for NPD, we find an inverted U-shape association between users' past performance (in terms of average quality of past ideas) and idea quality and idea submission. Additionally, interaction with peers' ideas (in terms of quantity and intensity) positively influences idea submission but does not impact idea quality. A complementary relationship between own experience and others' experiences was also not found. The findings provide new insights into idea crowdsourcing platforms for NPD and the determinants of individuals' idea submission behavior and idea quality on these platforms which have several implications for practice.