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Abstract
Online collaboration presents a real alternative to the company-centered innovation paradigm, and some users do more than just innovate, going the extra mile and actually creating brands themselves. The open-source movement, for instance, has produced a series of well-known brands such as Linux, Apache and Mozilla Firefox. The outdoor hiking community OutdoorSeiten.net serves as another example. Its members are dedicated to all types of outdoor sports and created their own gear to better fit their needs.
Often, community brands are not planned but evolve accidentally as byproducts of community interactions. Their value is seen not only within the community but throughout the whole industry. The ability to commonly design "ideal" products at lower expenses and without the threat of being exploited or overtaken by the next fashion wave enchants its users and fans alike.This phenomenon of engaged consumers producing their own brands places them in the same position as other producers, which is both a challenge and an opportunity for commercial companies.

Abstract
The gains from crowdsourcing can be high, but so can the risks. Contests may become a nightmare for the sponsoring organization if the innovators do not behave as planned. When contest managers act in undesirable ways from a participant's perspective, community members might bash, shame or ridicule a company. To prevent "firestorms" – negative, often highly emotional posts in social media that are eagerly taken over by traditional media – project sponsors need to ensure fairness throughout the contest. The value of the price and the procedures for selecting winners must be fair and transparent – and companies need to stick to predefined rules. Organizations that succeed in keeping their community motivated might not only benefit from new ideas, but also from additional positive effects. Devoting time, skills and personal engagement to developing new ideas for a company favors intense relationships, and participants often become passionate brand followers. By communicating openly about their approach of open innovation, companies can also foster their innovative image.

Strategy development has traditionally been exclusive and secretive. Social software offers new opportunities to harness the collective intelligence of the crowd within organizations and allows more open, participatory modes of strategizing. This paper describes this new phenomenon of open strategy though crowdsourcing and discusses its implications for research and practice. It draws on first examples of crowdsourcing strategy and is further based on observations and theoretical reflections. To understand the phenomenon with its requirements and consequences, a number of questions and challenges are identified which remain to be investigated. These include how the process of opening up needs to be designed, how individuals can be motivated to engage, for which topics and under which conditions crowdsourcing strategy is a suitable approach, how strategies emerge in such initiatives, the appropriate role of management, and how corporate culture affects and is affected by crowdsourcing strategy. Open strategy through crowdsourcing is a newly emerging empirical phenomenon, which seems to fundamentally change the strategist's work. More open and inclusive ways of strategizing not only offer new opportunities, but also create some challenges for organizations. This paper deepens the insights in this new phenomenon and identifies seven topics critical for research and management practice.
Keywords: strategy, crowdsourcing, collective intelligence. JEL Classification: M19