Crowdsourcing as a support to solving complex problems in entrepreneurial settings

Crowdsourcing is a newly-developed field that has helped a number of organizations to solved complex problems concerning quantities of information and resource accessibility. Many entrepreneurs have utilized crowdsourcing to their benefit, bypassing traditional forms of fundraising in order to increase their probability of success. Paper 1 will look specifically at the ways in which crowdsourcing can perform such a role, supporting the entrepreneur through each phase of the entrepreneurial process. Paper 2 will expand on this idea by exploring the effects that crowdsourcing can have on a company’s performance. Looking specifically at data provided by AngelList, a popular crowdsourcing platform, we’ll attempt to analyze the benefits that the technology has had on businesses by comparing crowdsourcing-based investment paths to those of traditional investors. Specifically, we measured the performance of both traditional and crowdsourcing-base business ventures over a 2-year period, using data extracted from Mattermark. We aim to shed light, here, on the ability of crowdsourcing to produce better performance in the medium-term. Paper 3 will investigate the effects that crowd size and diversity can have on the performance of a crowdsourced venture. AngelList’s data set will be useful in unpacking the relationship between the volume and diversity of a syndicate’s backers to see how these attributes can be beneficial or detrimental to a firm. While a significant amount of research has been undertaken around this topic, we have found that there are many gaps in the available literature. Where researchers have written extensively about the potential for crowdsourcing to support the discovery, exploitation and execution of entrepreneurial opportunities, much of this literature does not take into account the nature of currently-used crowdsourcing platforms. Throughout each of these papers, we’ll attempt to expand into the territory left unexplored by existing research, paying specific attention to the individual attributes phase of the entrepreneurial model.