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New Capabilities: Can IT Vendors Leverage Crowdsourcing?

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Information Systems Outsourcing

Part of the book series: Progress in IS ((PROIS))

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Abstract

Technological advancements enable new sourcing models in software development such as cloud computing, software-as-a-service, and crowdsourcing. While the first two are perceived as a re-emergence of older models (e.g., ASP), crowdsourcing is a new model that creates an opportunity for a global workforce to compete with established service providers. Organizations engaging in crowdsourcing need to develop the capabilities to successfully utilize this sourcing model in delivering services to their clients. To explore these capabilities we collected qualitative data from focus groups with crowdsourcing leaders at a large technology organization. New capabilities we identified stem from the need of the traditional service provider to assume a “client” role in the crowdsourcing context, while still acting as a “vendor” in providing services to the end client. This paper expands the research on vendor capabilities and IS outsourcing as well as offers important insights to organizations that are experimenting with, or considering, crowdsourcing.

This paper was presented at the Thirty Third International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Orlando 2012.

Work on this project was conducted at the Schulich School of Business, Toronto, Canada.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We use the terms “vendor” and “service provider” interchangeably. We acknowledge that, while practitioners prefer the latter term, in the academic literature, in particular IS outsourcing literature, the term “vendor” is commonly used.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 Eighth Street, Troy, NY, USA

    Dorit Nevo

  2. Aston Business School Aston University, Birmingham, UK

    Julia Kotlarsky

  3. University at Albany, 1400 Washington Ave, Albany, NY, USA

    Saggi Nevo

Authors
  1. Dorit Nevo
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  2. Julia Kotlarsky
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  3. Saggi Nevo
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Correspondence to Julia Kotlarsky .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Business Administration, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

    Rudy Hirschheim

  2. LS ABWL und Wirtschaftsinformatik I, Universität Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

    Armin Heinzl

  3. Institute for Information Systems Dept of Information Engineering, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Jens Dibbern

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Nevo, D., Kotlarsky, J., Nevo, S. (2014). New Capabilities: Can IT Vendors Leverage Crowdsourcing?. In: Hirschheim, R., Heinzl, A., Dibbern, J. (eds) Information Systems Outsourcing. Progress in IS. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43820-6_19

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