Evaluating Crowdsourced Designs: How Community Shapes New Product Design

Organisations increasingly initiate and develop crowdsourcing communities based on the needs for problem solving and innovation. The amount and diversity of designs generated on online communities pose new challenges in evaluating and selecting promising ones. This research aims to examine how crowdsourcing community evaluates crowdsources designs, especially what and how social and technical mechanisms in the community affect evaluating practices of designs. Drawing on prior work in design and creativity, and social evaluation, we uncover multiple criteria of defining and capturing value and conducting evaluating practices in crowdsourcing. More specifically, we argue that categorical assignment of a product design affects evaluators’ endorsement and this relationship is moderated by designers’ cognitive engagement The findings have theoretical implications for crowdsourcing research community and provide managerial insights for organisations engaged in design crowdsourcing practices.