Determinants and consequences of crowdsourcing for the management of a SME: case of the French startup 1083
Through the longitudinal case study of the French startup 1083 which manufactures and sells jeans and shoes “Made in France” and which adopted an effectual logic during its creation, we seek to answer the following question: how can the crowdsourcing impact an effectual process of creating and developing a business? For that, we first define the motivations of the crowdsourcing during the creation stage, then during the development of the company, but also we analyze the consequences of crowdsourcing on the company’s management. We identify two new reasons that motivated the company for crowdsourcing: consumer education and the influence the company can have on its partners. We also show that there is a close link between the effectual logic of creating and developing a business and crowdsourcing. On the one hand, these two phenomena reinforce each other and on the other hand, the process of carrying out imposes a coconstruction of the entrepreneurial project with several stakeholders. We also find that, even if the crowd participates in the creation of value for the company, the consequences of its involvement can become binding for the manager.