Crowdsourcing as a Tool to Help Generate Innovation in Small and Medium-Sized Hotels

Abstract

The purpose of this case study is to investigate the extent in which Crowdsourcing can contribute to innovations in small and medium-sized hotels. Three Crowdsourcing-tools were utilized in the examination/case study analysis of the Harzer Hof, a small hotel in Scharzfeld, Germany. The applied instruments comprised of an “external suggestion system”, an idea contest as well as the inclusion of a virtual community for the creation of innovation. The results show that the implementation of each tool is quite feasible and useful, considering that integration and utilization of the tools examined is easy, user-friendly and require few temporal and financial resources. Moreover, especially the idea contest and partially, the interacting virtual community redound to an enhancement of the innovation capacity, by increasing/stimulating knowledge and augmenting job performance. Consequently, depending on the applied tool, Crowdsourcing does contribute to the generation of innovative ideas in small and medium-sized hotels by expanding innovation capacity in a time- and cost-friendly manner through external knowledge and manpower.