Overview: When designed and driven efficiently, crowdsourcing can leverage the power of collective intelligence and yield innovative solutions. To date, the crowdsourcing literature has focused on exemplary corporate initiatives and less on crowdsourcing contests in public service organizations (PSOs), which have a diverse ecosystem. Existing literature has only sparsely studied the design aspect of crowdsourcing as a process. We explored crowdsourcing contests hosted by two large PSOs, Deutsche Bahn and Indian Railways, from a process perspective. We created a six-stage framework for crowdsourcing contests that other PSOs can use. We highlight the need for effective internal and external marketing to enhance the effectiveness of crowdsourcing in PSOs. With structured efforts, crowdsourcing contests can help PSOs cocreate impactful solutions by seamlessly blending internal and external knowledge and efforts.
