The influence of crowdsourcing in business decision-making: a risky shift?

This study examines how digital crowdsourcing platforms reshape managerial decision-making, using Herbert Simon's intelligence–design–choice framework as an analytical lens. Through narrative interviews with the CEO of Elite, an Italian cycling-industry SME and a case study of its 2017 crowdsourced design competition for an Autogrill promotional bottle, the paper shows that crowdsourcing concentrates loss of control almost entirely in the design phase, while intelligence and choice remain firmly managed internally. A companion questionnaire measuring control and creativity across the three phases reveals a marked divergence between the two variables under crowdsourcing (creativity 42 vs control 27) compared to traditional in-house processes where the two remain balanced (31 vs 31). The findings suggest that successful crowdsourcing requires managers to relinquish control deliberately in the design phase while reinforcing both control and creativity at the intelligence and choice stages, reframing the manager's core competence from technical expertise toward communication and briefing skill.