| dc.description.abstract | Over the last decades, open innovation has gained popularity among business organizations,
governments and academic institutions for problem-solving and business innovation. In this
thesis, we use a case study approach to examine crowdsourcing innovation platforms’ (Stack
Overflow and Quora) network composition, governance mechanisms and layering decisions. In
the case of Stack Overflow, the network is composed by professional and experienced
developers, which has a significant impact on its governance mechanism and layering decisions.
The community governance mechanism found to be practiced on Stack Overflow proposes
more value to the platform users. In the instance of Quora, the community is governed by its
internal administration (employees) and network size is determined to be more significant than
network composition. The results overall suggest that network size and composition have an
effect on its governance mechanism and layering decisions, which are found to be evident for
the selected cases (Stack Overflow and Quora). Furthermore, management should consider
network size and composition when deciding on the governance mechanism and layering
decision in order to propose an appropriate value for the crowdsourcing innovation Q&A
platform. | |