Using Public Crowds for Open Strategy Formulation: Mitigating the Risks of Knowledge Gaps

Online platforms allow for the possibility of including an ad hoc crowd of interested internal and external stakeholders drawn from the general public for open strategy formulation (OSF). However, sharing and integration of knowledge in ad hoc crowds are often impeded by knowledge gaps because of the wide diversity in these crowds. Two risks arise particularly for open strategy formulation when knowledge gaps are present: contentious conflict risk and self-promotion risk. Using action research, we examine the actions that mitigated these risk-inducing knowledge gaps. In particular, we found that four mitigation actions were taken: appropriately framing the strategic challenge question posed to the crowds, implementing a 2-phased guided crowdsourcing process to promote collaboration over contention, instructions explicitly discouraging self-promotion, and having the crowd post anonymously. Implications for future research and management implications on the use of online platforms for OSF are discussed.